Ending speculation, Bimal Gurung extends support to BJP in Lok Sabha election

It was decided at the meeting that for the benefit of the people and the issue of the Gorkhas we will support the BJP in the elections for the fourth time,” Gurung said

EOI, DARJEELING, MARCH 31, 2024 : Ending two days of speculation, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha President Bimal Gurung on Sunday declared his support for sitting BJP M. P. Raju Bista in the Darjeeling seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, and also for other BJP candidates in West Bengal.

“We had a meeting of our party today in which we discussed the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It was decided at the meeting that for the benefit of the people and the issue of the Gorkhas we will support the BJP in the elections for the fourth time,” Gurung said. 

He appealed to the people of the hills and the Terai to be present at Darjeeling Chowrasta on April 3,the day Raju Bista would file his nomination. 

Gurung had been maintaining a low key and holding the poll strategy of the GJM close to his chest. With Hamro Party President Ajoy Edwards and rebel BJP MLA of Kurseong B. P. Bajgain meeting him at the GJM party office in Darjeeling earlier last week,

Gurung returned to the lime light but was still non-committal of the poll strategy of the GJM. The first indication came when Gurung went to Delhi on a whirlwind tour to Delhi and returned on Friday. 

On Saturday, Raju Bista met him in Darjeeling. “We analyzed different factors and came to this decision and we are 110 percent confident that we will make the BJP victorious for the fourth time and also achieve our goal,” Gurung said on Sunday.

Gurung emphasized that the GJM and the people of Darjeeling had been suppressed for some time but maintained that the people of the hills should forget the way the BJP had overlooked them. 

“We recently had a serious meeting with them some days back in which we discussed our issue. We got a good response from them that from now on they will be looking at our issue closely. That’s why we have taken this decision,” Gurung said.

Whatever needed to be done for the hills, either tribal status for 11 left-out communities or Gorkhaland would be done. Apparently blaming the West Bengal government for suppressing the people of the hills for some time now, he said this was the time that people should come out as an answer to that.

With the support of Bimal Gurung and his party the GJM,BJP won the Darjeeling LokSabha seat thrice, in 2009, 2014 and 2019. 

Relations soured in 2020,when Bimal Gurung resurfaced after having spent three years in exile after the statehood agitation of 2017 and joined the Trinamool Congress, blaming the BJP government at the Centre for having let the hill people down on the Gorkhaland issue.

In his recent meeting in Siliguri, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured, however, that the Centre is already close to a permanent political solution of the problems of the hill people. With the BJP still ahead in the race in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, the assurance of the Prime Minister should be taken note of, say observers.

Bimal Gurung is still a force to reckon with in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong and his support will help concentrate the hill votes, and those in the Dooars and the Terai in favour of BJP candidate Raju Bista. 

Anit Thapa –led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha is, however, the ruling party in the hills now; running the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Anit Thapa’s candidate Gopal Lama is, however, contesting in the Darjeeling LokSabha seat with a Trinamool Congress ticket. 

The Darjeeling parliamentary seat, however, includes assembly segments in the plains of north Bengal as well .Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the Darjeeling seat, but with Hamro Party – led Ajoy Edwards joining the INDIA bloc,

Congress, too, will have an advantage. Steps like constitutional recognition for the Nepali language and the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council or the GTA had been taken when the Congress government was at the Centre and this should count, say observers.