Gorkhaland Supporters Hold Independence Day Meeting to Renew Political Campaign

Amitava Banerjee, MP, August 17, 2026, Darjeeling : ‘The public referendum on August 15 clearly tilts the scales in favour of Gorkhaland. The largest democracy of the world should take note of this,’ said Darjeeling youth leader Bikram Adi Rai while addressing media persons.

On Independence Day, Gorkhaland supporters, mainly youths, had gathered at the Gamon bridge near Namsu, Bungkulung in the Darjeeling Hills to discuss the way forward for a neo agitation for Gorkhaland.

Gorkha outfits claim that the political situation is conducive to carving out a separate state with the BJP in power in both the State and Centre and the BJP being empathetic to the Gorkha cause.

Among heightened activity, especially among Gen Z, public meetings and rallies have taken to the streets in the Hills, with a neo agitation for Gorkhaland.

The Gamon bridge meet was one such political exercise.

“We took a public referendum among those present with a single question as to whether an intellectual movement should be undertaken for Gorkhaland or not. Out of 990 votes, only two were against it,” stated Rai.

He added that Darjeeling always had the constitutional potential of a separate state.

“In 1935, it was accorded the Partially Excluded Area status. However, the Thakkar Commission later scrapped this. By virtue of Absorbed Area Act, laws of Bengal were clamped. Without a demand being raised in 1976 Darjeeling Hill Area Development Council was handed to Darjeeling, a premeditated act to halt the already brewing demand for a separate state,” he claimed.

The youth leader stated that the neo agitation would be intellectual in nature, progressive in nature and in no way destructive.

It would stretch from social media to the streets.

“Soon we will organise a programme in Kalimpong which will be called the ‘Gorkha Milan Parva’ to unite Gorkhas for Gorkhaland…,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) president Anit Thapa on Sunday said the voice of the people had been “taken away” in the hills and called upon his party to emerge as their voice through constructive and practical politics.

Addressing an organisational meeting, Thapa said: “Today, the voice of the people has been taken away in the hills. BGPM must become the voice of the people. We have to pursue constructive and practical politics. Our ideology must survive.”