ABGL not with the All party coalition

Darjeeling, Feb. 4: Except for the ABGL, all the opposition parties in the hills today shared a common platform and pledged to overlook the hurdles of coalition politics to fight for statehood.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha along with the CPRM, GNLF (C), Congress, Trinamul Congress, BJP, Sikkim National Front and Gorkha Rastriya Congress addressed a public meeting at Chowk Bazar.

The ABGL has refused to join the forum unless “collective leadership is practised in letter and spirit”. With this announcement, the death knell of an earlier coalition — the People’s Democratic Front, an anti-Subash Ghisingh forum — was sounded.

R.B. Rai, the general secretary of the CPRM, said: “The abilities of leaders are not judged by their age. Bimal Gurung (the Morcha chief) might be the youngest politician among us but he enjoys mass support and we must stand by him so that our dream for separate statehood is fulfilled.”

Rai, a former Darjeeling Rajya Sabha MP, and one of the senior most leaders, requested the ABGL once again to join the forum. He, however, made it clear that people should reject leaders who refuse to unite because of personal squabbles.

G.S. Yonzone, the president of the BJP hill unit, demanded that Ghisingh leave the council and proposed the formation of Siliguri District Dooars Development Authority instead of the DGHC.

“Siliguri and Dooars are our territory and we will never let them go,” said Yonzone.