GTF out of hill contest

RAJEEV RAVIDAS
Kalimpong, July 6: The Gorkhaland Task Force of five rival parties of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said it would not contest the GTA polls because it sees the exercise as a ploy by the state to claim that people in the hills have given up the statehood demand.

“The GTA election is the ploy of the state government to establish that the hills and the 18 (added) mouzas have accepted GTA as an alternative to Gorkhaland,” said Anos Das Pradhan, the chief co-ordinator of the GTF, which comprises the CPRM, ABGL, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisang, Gorkhaland Rashtra Nirman Morcha and the GNLF-C.

Pradhan said the GTF would work towards creating an opinion against the polls. “Those who take part in the election either as Independents or voters are all anti-Gorkhaland. They would be supporting the designs of the government, which has repeatedly said Banga bhanga hotey debona (We will not allow Bengal to be broken up),” he said, adding parties taking part in the polls would lose the moral authority to lead a movement in the name of Gorkhaland in the future.

Pradhan said the Justice Shyamal Sen report recommending the inclusion of only five mouzas of the plains in the GTA was an insult to the Gorkhas across the country. “The report will be cited by the Centre and the state to claim that the Gorkhas are a minority in the two areas.”

Although its main rivals are staying off the polls, the Morcha may have to deal with rebellion in at least one constituency with a party functionary filing nomination in Nimbong-Gidabling where the outfit has fielded vice-president Kalyan Dewan.

Sanchabir Subba, the president of the party’s Parbintar-Nimbong unit, said people “do not approve of the contest of a non-local candidate (Dewan)”.