With the West Bengal assembly elections scheduled to be held next year, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) faction’s Roshan Giri on Sunday said that they will back chief minister Mamata Banerjee who he said unlike the faction’s former ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “keeps her promises.”
Giri, general secretary of the faction headed by Bimal Gurung, alleged that the BJP cheated their faction and did not live up to any of its promises during their association from 2009 to 2020. “We’ve decided to defeat BJP who cheated us. They didn’t fulfill any of our demands from 2009 to 2020. We’ll support Mamata Banerjee in North Bengal. We want to see her as the third time CM. She keeps her promises,” news agency ANI quoted Giri, general secretary of the faction headed by Bimal Gurung, as saying.
During a rally in the Darjeeling region, Giri said the BJP governments had assured the Gorkhas before three successive Lok Sabha polls that political crisis in the hills would be solved but nothing was done. “Actually they don’t have the political will to find a permanent political solution. Why does the Centre make tripartite talks a prerequisite when it comes to the Gorkhas? The creation of Telangana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand did not require tripartite talks,” Giri said. The Gorkhas lost 15 years because of the BJP, he added.
The GJM led by fugitive Gorkha leader Bimal Gurung in October quit the NDA and aligned with TMC, saying the BJP had “failed to find a permanent solution” for the Hills — which had witnessed major unrest over demand for a separate state in 2017.
Giri also clarified the GJM was not giving up its demand for Gorkhaland and will extend support to that party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections which will back their demand for a separate state.
He also ruled out any reconciliation with the Binoy Tamang faction claiming that Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Chairman Anit Thapa and GJM leader Binoy Tamang have no base in the hills. Giri accused them of being involved in financial wrongdoings