Raju Bista hopeful Bimal Gurung will support BJP

PRASHANT ACHARYA, EOI, SILIGURI, 29 MARCH 2024 : With BJP candidate for Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat Raju Bista on Friday ascribing his electoral success in 2019 in the same seat to the support he had received from Gorkha Janmukti Morcha President Bimal Gurung, speculations are rife that Bimal Gurung may yet again extend his support to the BJP in the ensuing election. 

“Whatever I am today, Bimal Gurung has a big contribution in this. My first lessons in politics were also from Bimal Gurungji,”Bista said. 

Bista was talking to reporters at Bagdogra airport on his way to Delhi where he had been called for an urgent meeting with the BJP leadership. When reporters asked him if in this election, too, he was expecting the support of Bimal Gurung, Bista said: “It is his right to decide who he will support and no one should intervene in this. 

He has called a meeting with his party workers today and he will announce his decision in a Press conference soon.” 

Meanwhile, Bimal Gurung who had gone to Delhi on a brief visit after his meeting with Hamro Party leader Ajoy Edwards in Darjeeling earlier this week did not talk to reporters at Bagdogra airport when he returned from Delhi earlier on Friday. 

In a public rally in Siliguri in January 2022 Bimal Gurung said BJP had betrayed hill people and he would never accept the party again. 

It would be difficult, however, for Bimal Gurung to extend support to Trinamool Congress candidate from Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat Gopal Lama because of his rivalry with Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha leader Anit Thapa and the Trinamool –BGPM alliance. 

With Hamro Party led by Ajoy Edwards having joined the INDIA bloc, the possibility of a front of regional parties emerging for the Darjeeling seat has also dimmed