Cadres want Didi ‘yes’ to hill contest

VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, July 4: Trinamul Congress supporters in the Darjeeling hills are more interested in hearing Mamata Banerjee declare the party’s decision to contest the elections to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabha than her visit here next week.

The Darjeeling district committee had decided in principle on Sunday to field candidates in at least half of total 45 GTA seats, but a final announcement has to come from the state leadership.

Sources in the party said those who had recently joined Trinamul were interested in taking the fight to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha through the GTA elections.

“We want to contest the GTA elections. We believe there is resentment against the Morcha and our candidates can put up a strong fight. We will definitely field candidates in Jorebunglow, Darjeeling Sadar constituencies and Tukvar (which is considered a fiefdom of Morcha president Bimal Gurung),” said a Trinamul leader.

However, the workers are a worried lot, as chief minister Mamata is still undecided on contesting the elections. “We are keeping our fingers crossed and are hopeful that our request to contest the polls will be honoured,” said the leader.

Mamata will reach Takdah, about 35km from Darjeeling, on July 12 and after an overnight halt, will leave for Kalimpong to take part in the birth anniversary celebrations of Nepali poet Bhanubhakta Acharya.

A decision on contesting the polls has to come before Mamata’s visit, as July 9 is the last date for filing the nominations. As the party supporters are waiting for a positive decision, they have already collected 13 nominations from the Kalimpong subdivisional office. The subdivision has 13 GTA constituencies.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung today announced that Anit Thapa and Arun Sinji would contest from Kurseong and Soureni respectively.(TT)