Raju Bista defends decision to exclude Kalimpong, Kurseong MLAs from Siliguri meet

PRASHANT ACHARYA, EOI, SILIGURI, OCTOBER 6, 2024: The absence of the MLAs of Kalimpong and Kurseong at the meeting held in Siliguri on Sunday to prepare a roadmap for taking forward the demand for scheduled tribe status for the left-out Gorkha communities in Darjeeling and Sikkim to a successful conclusion has led critics to say that the BJP wants to monopolize the show.

Kalimpong MLA Ruden Sada Lepcha belongs to the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha and was elected to the West Bengal assembly in 2021 with the support of the Trinamool Congress. MLA of Kurseong Bishnu Prasad Sharma is a rebel BJP member. Observers said that if the efforts of the Joint Action Committee succeeded in securing scheduled tribe status for the left-out communities, it would now be easy for the BJP to pocket the entire credit, and this would stand in good stead for the ruling party at the Centre in the next assembly election in West Bengal in 2026.

BJP M.P. from Darjeeling, Raju Bista, who was one of the main organizers of the meeting on Sunday, however, defended the decision not to invite the MLAs of Kalimpong and Kurseong to the meeting. “When the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration organizes any government function, do they call us? When Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee traveled all the way from Kolkata to Darjeeling to celebrate the birth anniversary of Subash Chandra Bose, did she invite me?” Bista asked. “Then why should I invite the BGPM MLA, who is backed by Trinamool Congress, and the Kurseong MLA, who works against BJP and claims that he has left the party?”

He feared that if he had invited them, they would have spoiled the initiative at the meeting, and he did not want to do anything that could go against his community. He also said that if the BGPM MLA would take an oath that he would work truly for the betterment of the community and wanted to join the team, he was welcome.