Congress can bring new hope to Darjeeling and Kalimpong hills, says Munish Tamang

Tamang was in Kalimpong on Saturday as part of his election campaign, where he also attended a Paila Baisakh (Nepali New Year) programme at the Mela Ground in the town and mingled with the crowd gathered there.

YOWAN MOTHAY, RAJESH SHARMA, EOI, KALIMPONG, JAIGAON, APRIL 14, 2024 : Congress candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat Munish Tamang has stressed on the need for change in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, and said that the Congress was an alternative to the “politics of lies” of the BJP and of “corruption and tyranny’ of Trinamool Congress.

Tamang was in Kalimpong on Saturday as part of his election campaign, where he also attended a Paila Baisakh (Nepali New Year) programme at the Mela Ground in the town and mingled with the crowd gathered there.

Flanked by Hamro Party president Ajoy Edwards, Tamang told reporters: “For the past 15 years, people in the Darjeeling constituency have been bearing the tyranny and corruption of Trinamool Congress and the politics of lies of the BJP.

Voters here want to reject both the parties now. At a time when people here have been looking for someone to take ahead their issues, we, the Congress, have brought here an alternative.” He said the Congress is not new to the hills of Darjeeling. 

“Darjeeling and Congress share an old and deep relationship. Not only here, but Gorkhas across the country have maintained good relations with the Congress. What ever political solutions the hills saw in the past, had been done when the Congress-UPA government was at the Centre,” Tamang said. 

According to him, the Congress had a proven history of addressing the issues of Darjeeling, as the Congress-UPA government had delivered the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, Citizen Gazette notification for Gorkhas, Nepali language recognition in the Constitution, Sixth Schedule Bill, and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. 

“All that the BJP did in the past 15 years in Darjeeling was ‘jumla.’ That party had promised a permanent political solution (PPS) to the Gorkhas, but it is laughable that the BJP has even not been able to say what PPS exactly is,” Tamang said.

“They kept on saying that they were doing it now; this Parliament session, next Parliament session, yet another Parliament session. They then said something will definitely happen before the elections in 2024. However, nothing happened. Now they are saying they will do it in their next term. This means that the BJP has admitted that it did nothing for the Gorkhas in their third term in Darjeeling as well,” he added.

According to Tamang, there was a wave in the country this time around about removing the BJP government. “Even the BJP and the Modi government know that they will not return to the Centre this time around. This is the reason that we see the BJP is worried now,” he said.

“Putting two Chief Ministers in jail, threatening opponents with the help of the CBI and the ED, freezing bank accounts of opposition parties, threatening industrial houses with bank bonds, threatening the Press, all these prove that the BJP government is not confident now,” Tamang said. 

“We are confident that the people of Darjeeling will this time reject the lies and the tyranny and corruption and choose the Congress that will take ahead people’s issues,” he added