GJM Delegation Meets West Bengal CM, Seeks Lasting Resolution to Hills Issue and Alternative to GTA

PTI, July 29, 2026, Kolkata: A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) delegation on Wednesday met West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and sought a "permanent solution" to the political issue of the Darjeeling hills through talks with the Centre and the state, and also replacing the semi-autonomous council GTA with a more enduring institutional arrangement.

GJM president Bimal Gurung and general secretary Roshan Giri called on the CM at the Public Works Department's Maidan camp office here and held a 90-minute meeting. Transport and Labour Minister Arjun Singh was also present.

Addressing reporters after the deliberations, Gurung said the issue of the hills could be resolved only through dialogue involving the Centre.

"We believe the political issue of the hills can be resolved through discussions with the central and state governments. A tripartite meeting will be held in the coming days to explore how the issue can be resolved through talks with the Centre," he said.

GJM sources said the delegation also urged the Chief Minister to work towards a "permanent alternative" to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), arguing that the existing body had failed to address the long-term aspirations of the hill residents.

According to the sources, the GJM also demanded that the state government open official files relating to the GTA and order a comprehensive and impartial probe into the alleged financial irregularities and corruption during the previous Trinamool Congress regime.

Gurung said discussions also covered issues relating to closed tea gardens, tea workers, teacher recruitment, transport and overall development of the hills.

He invited Adhikari to attend the GJM's foundation day programme in Darjeeling on October 7, and said the Chief Minister responded positively to the invitation.

Following the meeting, Singh said Gurung and Giri raised several issues concerning transport and the tea industry in the hills and that the government assured them that those matters would be examined.

He said he would visit Darjeeling next Monday on the Chief Minister's directions to review transport-related issues and the condition of tea gardens.

The meeting marked the most substantive engagement yet between the new BJP government and the GJM since the Assembly elections, in which the party swept six of the seven Assembly segments under the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency.

Gurung, who arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday and offered prayers at a temple, said after his arrival he would raise a range of issues affecting the hill region, including the ongoing ration card controversy, unemployment, problems faced by commercial drivers, and the concerns of tea garden and cinchona plantation workers.

"With the BJP government in both the Centre and the state, we are optimistic that the Gorkhas will definitely benefit," the GJM chief said here.

Gurung, however, refrained from spelling out any demand for a separate Gorkhaland state, choosing instead to foreground governance and development issues.

Political observers attribute a significant part of that performance to Gurung's return to the BJP camp before the polls.

The GJM chief and Giri had met Adhikari, then the Leader of the Opposition, at Nizam Palace here before the elections and pledged support to the BJP's campaign in the hills.

The interaction also followed Adhikari's recent visit to north Bengal, where he promised accelerated development in the hills and accused the previous Trinamool Congress government of neglecting the region.

The meeting also comes against the backdrop of the decades-old Gorkhaland statehood movement, which has shaped politics in north Bengal for nearly four decades.

From the violent agitation led by Subhash Ghisingh's Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in the 1980s to the later movement spearheaded by Gurung's GJM, the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state has remained the defining political issue in the Darjeeling hills.

The BJP entered the region's political landscape in 2009 through alliances with hill parties and has retained the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat ever since, promising a "permanent political solution" to the long-standing aspirations of the Gorkha community.

However, despite repeatedly benefiting electorally from support in the hills, the party has stopped short of endorsing a separate state, preferring to keep the promise of a permanent political solution deliberately open-ended.