Morcha rebels stay put in polls

VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Nov. 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s dream of winning elections to all four hill municipalities uncontested received a jolt with Independents remaining in the fray in five wards of the Mirik civic body.

When the withdrawal of the nominations closed today, the Morcha acted swiftly and announced the expulsion of three Independents.

“Of the five candidates who did not withdraw the nominations, three were our party members. We have expelled them for going against the party decision. The other two candidates don’t belong to the Morcha and are probably backed by the GNLF,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.

Eight persons had filed papers as Independents in six of the nine seats in Mirik. While Saraswati Tamang (ward 3), Nima Singh Tamang (ward 6) and Sunil Bomzom (ward 7) withdrew their nominations this afternoon, the other Independents decided to stay in the fray. The five are Bijay Tamang (ward 6), Roshan Tamang (ward 7), Krishna Sarkri (ward 8), Bijay Tamang (ward 9) and Pemba Tshering Bhutia (ward 2).

The candidates expelled from the Morcha are Bijay Tamang, Roshan Tamang and Krishna Sarki. “Bijay Tamang was a member of the party’s town committee, while Roshan Tamang was with the Yuva Morcha. Krishna Sarki belonged to the Nari Morcha,” said Giri.

The municipal elections will be held on December 11 and Morcha candidates will take on the Independents in five seats. The rest of the wards have been won by M.K. Zimba (ward 3), Manikala Ghalay (ward 1), Mala Subba (ward 4) and Barun Subba (ward 5). This essentially means that the Morcha needs to win one more seat to take control of the municipality.

If the Morcha loses all the five seats, it will have to sit in the Opposition and this could come as a major blow to the party in Mirik. Notable leaders who have to fight the elections are Arun Ghisingh (ward 2), the vice-president of the Morcha’s Mirik Mahakuma Parishad, and L.B. Rai (ward 7), a central committee member of the party and a former chairperson of the Mirik municipality.

The Morcha has declared that Rai will be the chairperson of the Mirik municipality if the party wins the polls.

After retreating from the contest, Saraswati Tamang said she had filed the papers to drive home the point that no leader could carry on without taking others on board.

“Even though I was an ex-commissioner of the Mirik municipality and a member of the Morcha, certain leaders of the branch committee used to domineer over me. I was never against the party but wanted to prove a point. As I am convinced with the assurances of the central committee members, I decided to withdraw the nomination in the interest of the party,” she said.

Bijay Tamang, one of the expelled Morcha members, said: “We do not have any negative attitude towards the party but since this is a democratic country, we have decided to contest the elections.”

Although the Morcha has won all the seats uncontested in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, the boards there can be formed only after the election process in Mirik is over. Counting of votes in Mirik will take place on December 13.

(The Telegraph)