Consensus on hill poll yet to be reached

Darjeeling, March 19: The ABGL announcement that it would not contest any polls till the bill conferring Sixth Schedule status on the hills is scrapped and Gorkhaland achieved might put the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in a spot. Although Bimal Gurung, the president of the newly formed party, had said that “election was secondary” to Gorkhaland, his party had never shot down the idea altogether.

On the other hand, the ABGL stand that it will boycott elections till Gorkhaland is achieved will keep the Morcha under pressure, especially after it has, in recent times, revived the statehood demand.

The ABGL announcement comes in the wake of the Bengal government’s keenness to conduct panchayat elections in the Darjeeling hills at the earliest. Although the hills are supposed to have a two-tier panchayat system, election to panchayat samities never took place after 1988 while gram panchayats, too, have been defunct since June 2005.

“We will boycott all elections till our demand for Gorkhaland is realised. We also want the Sixth Schedule bill to be scrapped. The Congress is trying to impose the status so that we cannot place the statehood demand when the Second Reorganisation Commission is set up before the next elections,” said Madan Tamang, the president of the ABGL.

The party maintains that contesting elections at this juncture will only help the state government to silence pro-Gorkhaland voices.

The CPRM, another major anti-GNLF party, said it is yet to discuss elections. “We are planning to hold a meeting on March 23 where it is likely to be discussed,” said D.S. Bomzom, the spokesperson for the CPRM.

Tamang criticised the government for not forming a board of political parties to oversee the functioning of the DGHC after Subash Ghisingh resigned from the post of caretaker administrator. “By allowing administrative officials to be at the helm of affairs, the CPM has indirectly come into power at the council. The board would have put in place a check-and-balance system in the council,” said Tamang.

Dharna in Delhi

The Morcha has decided to organise a dharna in front of Parliament at the end of April in demand of Gorkhaland.

Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha, said over phone from Delhi: “We had met Sonia Gandhi and Shivraj Patil, who asked us to suggest an alternative to the special status. The only alternative would be Gorkhaland.” He added that the dharna would be organised by the Morcha’s Delhi unit.