Darjeeling/Kolkata, Mar 2 (PTI) A four-month-old political outfit, Hamro Party (our party) on Wednesday sprang the biggest surprise of the civic elections by grabbing the Darjeeling Municipality, worsting traditional heavyweight hill parties like the GJM.
Riding on the poll plank of social justice and overall development, Hamro Party won 18 of the 32 seats in the Darjeeling Municipality formed in 1850, while the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha emerged victorious in nine seats. Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and the Trinamool Congress won three and two seats respectively in the civic body. The BJP and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) drew a blank.
Hamro Party, which emerged as a new political force to reckon with in the hills, was floated by Ajoy Edwards, a former GNLF leader and a famous restaurateur in Darjeeling.
“I accept people’s verdict with all humility. My party will work for the overall development of the hills. Our target is to build a prosperous, inclusive, and progressive Darjeeling,” Edwards told reporters after his party’s stunning victory.
However, Edwards himself lost from Ward 22.
Edwards, once considered a close ally of GNLF president Mann Ghisingh, left the party after disagreements with the latter, and formed his outfit in November last year.
He said he would stand as “a voice of the silent majority”.
According to observers of hill politics, the slogan of the separate state of Gorkhaland was not echoed by the Hamrao Party. Rather, it stressed the need for social development of the hills, attracting the youths and first-time voters to his party.
The demand for a separate Gorkhaland state is not a poll issue for quite some time in the Darjeeling Hills as parties, including the indigenous GJM and GNLF, are stressing on development and restoration of democracy in the region.
“There was a visible undercurrent against all traditional parties as some of them are aligned with the BJP and others with the TMC. Two factors worked in Hamro Party’s favour – negativity against the traditional parties and the freshness that Ajay Edwards brought into the poll fray,” Munish Tamang, national president of Bharatiya Gorkha Parishad and an observer of hill politics, told PTI.
Darjeeling is a picturesque hill town, and ethnic Gorkhas dominate the area. The place, known for its world-class tea, is also inhabited by Lepchas, Sherpas, Bhutias and other tribal communities.
Tamang added that agitations and the Covid-19 pandemic has crippled the tea and tourism sectors — the financial backbone of the hills — leaving many people jobless, and voters realised that they need infrastructural development and employment opportunities more than anything else.
Darjeeling, often referred to as the ‘Queen of the Hills’, have witnessed several political parties over the years promising the people of the Hills a separate Gorkhaland state and implementation of the Sixth Schedule, which grants autonomy to a tribal region.
The demand for a separate state was first made in the 1980s, with the Subhas Ghisingh-led GNLF launching a violent agitation in 1986, which went on for 43 days and led to the death of around 1,200 people in the Hills.
The movement culminated in the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1988, following the intervention of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu.
The separate statehood demand gained momentum again in 2007 after the formation of the GJM, under the leadership of Bimal Gurung, who was once a trusted aide of Ghisingh.
In 2011, after the TMC took over the reins of Bengal dethroning the Left Front after 34 years, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was formed with Gurung as its chief.
But peace was short-lived in the area as Gurung led an agitation over the statehood demand, first in 2013, and then engineered a 104-day-long strike in 2017, accusing the TMC government of trying to “wipe out” the Gorkha identity.
The strike also led to a split in the GJM, with Tamang, his deputy, taking over the reins. Gurung and his loyalists were expelled from the party.
Gurung in October 2020, walked out of the alliance with the BJP and aligned with the TMC ahead of the assembly polls. Tamang joined the TMC in December last year. PTI PNT NN NN
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