Karate, bread and candles in GTA polls : Politicians get creative in bid to win over voters

A still from  a video of Karate Kalia in action (left) and another still from the clip of the Hamro Party bread drive : Sourced by The Telegraph

Vivek Chhetri   |   TT  |  Darjeeling   |    23.06.22  : Hill politicians are getting creative as polling for Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabha on June 26 draws near, from showcasing karate skills to distributing bread and asking hill residents to light candles.

Dinesh Gurung — more commonly known as “Karate Kaila" for his exploits in the martial arts — has come up with a promotional video where the 63-year old Trinamul leader is seen displaying his martial arts skills for a full 2.36 minutes.

“Kaila” means the fourth brother of a family in Nepali.

Karate Kaila, a former vice-chairman of Darjeeling municipality, was earlier with Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). He switched sides to Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) and joined Trinamul a few days before ticket distribution.

Karate Kaila’s promotional video explains that he got his black belt in 1981, lists out his “well-known” pupils and that he still continues to teach karate to youngsters.

The martial art exponent, however, rues that his proposal to GTA to set up a martial art academy is still unfulfilled and promises to complete the project if voted to power.

“People identify Dinesh Gurung as Karate Kaila and this explains the idea for the video,” said a close aide of Kaila.

Karate Kaila is pitted against Ajoy Edwards, the president of the Hamro Party, and Pasang Agarwal who is also known as Prity Agarwal of the BGPM from Darjeeling Sadar III constituency.

Edwards’s symbol is bread. The politician is also the owner of Darjeeling’s famous confectionery, Glenary’s.

On Wednesday, supporters of Hamro Party were seen distributing bread loaves which had a piece of paper where Hamro Party’s name was printed along with the party’s election signal triggering allegations of violation of model code of conduct by Pasang Agarwal’s supporters.

Pasang’s election symbol is a pair of candles. The symbol has been allotted to most of the BGPM candidates.

On Wednesday, BGPM chief Anit Thapa appealed to hill residents to light candles on June 24 and 25. “I appeal to all families to light a candle and pray for happiness, peace and progress,” said Thapa.

Thapa has decided to walk for 8km from Ghoom to Darjeeling on June 24 and termed it a “rally to build the future of hills and Terai.”

Edwards has alleged that the nexus of leaders and certain contractors have ruined the hills.

The last day of campaigning is June 24 as elections are scheduled for June 26.

Courtesy & source