GNLF's youth wing demands immediate fulfillment of the promises made by BJP

Saffron party's hill ally plastered posters in Kurseong town on Sunday

The poster campaign in Kurseong on Sunday. : Picture by Passang Yolmo

Vivek Chhetri   |   TT  |  Darjeeling   |   01.05.23  : The youth wing of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), a long-time ally of the BJP in the Darjeeling hills, on Sunday took to the streets, seeking immediate fulfilment of the promises made by the BJP for the region.

The youth wing of the GNLF plastered posters in Kurseong town on Sunday, indicating a high degree of restiveness among BJP allies in the hills as the 2024 Lok Sabha polls draw near.

“We have started this campaign as time is running out. We played a key role in ensuring the BJP’s victory in Darjeeling during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But now we are facing questions from the general public here regarding the promises made back then, to which we frankly have no answers,” said Rupesh Chhetri, the president of the Gorkha National Youth Front (GNYF), Kurseong branch committee.

The BJP has been winning the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat since 2009 with help from hill allies.

In the 2019 election manifesto, the BJP promised to find a “permanent political solution” — which the party, however, did not define in concrete terms — for Darjeeling, the Dooars and the Terai, and Scheduled Tribe status for 11 Gorkha communities.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2019 election campaign had said that the dreams of the Gorkhas were his dreams too,” said Chhetri.

The GNLF has consistently maintained that the “permanent political solution” should ideally be a separate state of Gorkhaland or a Union Territory, and nothing less than the “Sixth Schedule”.

Certain areas in the northeastern states are granted special administrative provisions under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

The decision to put up posters on Sunday came after the GNLF held a central committee meeting in Darjeeling on Friday, chaired by party president Mann Ghisingh.

“Today’s (Sunday’s) campaign is an outcome of that central committee’s meeting. We have other events lined up also,” said Chhetri, adding that the hill people had been waiting for a long time for something concrete and hence were getting “frustrated”.

In 2019, apart from the GNLF, the other major ally of the BJP in the hills was Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

The Morcha, however, abandoned the BJP and joined hands with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul in October 2020. Then, the GNLF became the largest ally of the BJP in the hills.

At the moment, Gurung is neither attached to the BJP nor Trinamul.

Raju Bista, the Darjeeling BJP MP, is, however, banking on his party to deliver.

“I am speaking on record. If the people of Darjeeling, the Terai and the Dooars do not get justice (by 2024), Raju Bista will resign from politics and will not contest any election in future,” Bista recently said.

Courtesy & source- The Telegraph