As Darjeeling prepares for the second round of Lok Sabha elections on April 26, Gorkhaland’s statehood and tea garden workers’ minimum wage issues remain the key concerns.
Manipur-born BJP candidate Raju Bista is contesting again. This time, there are three contenders: Gopal Lama, a former bureaucrat, of the Trinamool, Munish Tamang of the Congress and Bista.
Darjeeling is the only Bengal seat won three times by the BJP, from 2009 to 2019. Jaswant Singh won in 2009, SS Ahluwalia in 2014 and Raju Bista in 2019
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Bista had won the seat in 2019 with the highest vote margin of four lakh votes. Bista claims he will win with a record five lakh vote margin this time.Of the seven assembly constituencies, Trinamool has an MLA in Chopra. Five assembly constituencies are with the BJP. However, Kurseong MLA, Bishnu Prasad Sharma, is fighting the LS polls as an independent. “I am not leaving BJP but I want to contest the seat as a son of the soil. Bista is from Manipur,” Sharma said.Meanwhile, hill party BGPM has MLA Ruden Sada Lepcha who had won from Kalimpong in 2021, with support from the Trinamool.
Gorkhaland Issue
The deman for Gorkhaland statehood has been Darjeeling’s principal issue for decades. Darjeeling has seen violence and agitation, led by the GNLF and its leader Subhas Ghising, for years.
The 1980s Gorkhaland movement turned very powerful in the hills. A violent 100-day protest by Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) pursuing statehood exacerbated tensions in 2017. Violent unrest killed 11.
However, the Trinamool government managed to establish peace and Gurung has been in hiding for long. In a rally in North Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hinted that a political solution would be considered to this issue. At a recent public rally, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in an audio message, also said that the Gorkhas will get rightful justice. However, none of them have directly spoken about separate statehood. The Trinamool Congress strongly opposes the division of the state.
Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya stated, “BJP top leadership does not want to be responsible for the division of Bengal and thus the demand for Gorkhaland statehood is touched subtly.”
Bista remarked, “CPM, Congress, and Trinamool Congress have cheated Darjeeling for years. BJP is trusted and a solution is being considered. The Trinamool administration stifled regional development.”
Former GJM member Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) won the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration elections. He is supporting Trinamool candidate Gopal Lama.
“BJP has never kept its promises,” Thapa said, adding, “it always made empty promises. We should focus on development like Trinamool Congress.”
Minimum wages of the tea garden workers and the shutdown of tea gardens are other major issues here. As the tea garden workers of the region grapple with poverty and wage issues, Trinamool Supremo has distributed land deeds to the workers, provided them alternative housing and given them benefits of Swasthya Sathi health cards and other social welfare schemes.
VOLATILE HILL PARTIES
Hill political parties remain pretty volatile. Formerly with the GJM, Binay Tamang, former chairperson of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the autonomous body governing Darjeeling, joined the Congress last year. Just three days before the elections, Tamang was suspended for six years from the Congress for supporting BJP candidate Bista. Thapa, also was with GJM and came to politics under the leadership of Gurung.
Thapa said, “Gurung was my leader but later I found my way in politics.” After Gurung went from the hills after the 2017 incident, Tamang and Thapa came to prominence. GJM chief Bimal Gurung, who is back in the hills, has supported Bista but in 2021 assembly polls, he supported Trinamool. His political outfit is now weak and has multiple factions. Gorkha National Liberation Front also supports Bista.
