Gopal Lama named Trinamool candidate for Darjeeling LS seat : BGPM hailed the choice as a Gorkha candidate

Lama was the BDO of Siliguri and Cooch Behar and later SDO and Joint Director of Tourism at Siliguri.

EOI, DARJEELING, MARCH 10, 2024 : The Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced at the Brigade Parade Ground rally in Kolkata the name of retired bureaucrat Gopal Lama as its candidate from the Darjeeling constituency for the Lok Sabha election. Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha hailed the choice of Gopal Lama as a Gorkha candidate. Lama was presented to the audience at the rally, along with the Trinamool Congress candidates in the other41 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal.

In Darjeeling, BGPM President Anit Thapa said in a public programme at Chungthung-Rishihat that Lama was the candidate of the Gorkha community. 

The BGPM and the Trinamool Congress are in an alliance since the end of the 2017statehood agitation.

 “We are happy that the Trinamool Congress agreed to our proposal. We had requested the Trinamool leadership to allow us to field our candidates for the Lok Sabha election. Lama is a retired officer and is a well-known face; having worked in the hills as well as in the plains," Thapa said. 

Explaining why Lama would be contesting with the Trinamool poll symbol, Thapa said: "The MP election is won not only with votes from the hills but also with votes from the plains. We, therefore felt the need to use the party symbol of our alliance partner," he said.
Lama 70 was born in Gairigaon near Tung in the Kurseong sub-division. He finished initial education from the hills and then completed higher education from the army. For a brief period Lama had worked as a school teacher in Sikkim. In 1985 passed the WBCS examination and was posted in Purulia. He was the BDO of Siliguri and Cooch Behar and later SDO and Joint Director of Tourism at Siliguri.
Lama had also served as the Darjeeling Additional District Magistrate. After his retirement in2014, he was deputed as an officer on special duty in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration till2017.

Taking a dig at the BJP, Thapa said time had come for the Gorkhas to put in place the saffron party for its insensitivity towards the aspiration and dreams of the community. 

"For 15 years, we voted for the lotus flower, but have been fooled. If we continue to get swayed by the sugary words of the BJP then we will be called fools. We should not be tricked and misled again. Now we must unite to defeat the BJP," said the BGPM president.

Thapa urged people to vote for Lama even though he would contest the election with a Trinamool Congress ticket. 

"The State Government has given the hills the School Service Commission and health sector facilities. Funds have been provided by the West Bengal government for roads, drinking water and primary education. It's only been over a year that we, the BGPM, are administering the GTA but we already have the process to address the demand for granting land rights," he said. 

The BGPM president said his party believed in practical and realistic politics and delivering on promises made; unlike rival parties who had no issues to seek votes from people