Hill Trinamul group joins Morcha

Darjeeling, April 12: Suk Bahadur Subba, a former Trinamul Congress leader from Kalimpong, joined the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today with around 50 of his supporters. The Morcha said Trinamul supporters in the hills had started joining the Morcha after realising that the primarily political demand of the hill people, which is the creation of Gorkhaland, would remain unfilled by Trinamul. Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “Suk Bahadur Subba, a Trinamul Congress candidate in the GTA elections from Algara-Dalapchand, today joined the Morcha along with 50 of his supporters after realising that the Morcha is the only party sincere towards the demand for the creation of a state.” The 49-year-old Subba, a small-time farmer from Algara in Kalimpong, was previously with the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front (UGRF), which is at the moment politically inactive. Today, Morcha president Bimal Gurung handed over the party flag to Subba and his supporters in Darjeeling. Subba said he had joined the Morcha because the cause of the Gorkha people was paramount to him and he believed the Morcha, and not Trinamul, would remain true to the community. “I had joined the Trinamul about a year back in the hope it would take up the cause of our people, but that has not happened. I told Bimal daju in Darjeeling I am in politics only to espouse the cause of our people. Otherwise, I am happy being a poor farmer,” he said. Subba had filed nomination against Morcha candidate Kalpana Tamang in the GTA polls held on July 29, 2012. However, Mamata Banerjee instructed Subba and 16 other Trinamul candidates to “politically withdraw” from the elections as Trinamul shared a healthy relation with the Morcha then. The new entrant to the Morcha also said he was made to feel unwanted in Trinamul by the party’s hills convener Rajen Mukhia. “Maybe, it was because of our different background. Mukhia used to be with the GNLF, while I was with the UGRF. He probably didn’t feel comfortable with me.” Giri said many Morcha supporters who had left the party for Trinamul had slowly started returning to the party. “Just a few days ago, 13 Morcha supporters who had joined Trinamul returned to our party after holding a meeting with our area’s (Mungpoo) GTA Sabha member, Ratan Thapa,” said Giri. It’s not clear if any of the 50 people who had left Trinamul and joined the Morcha today had been with Gurung’s outfit before. A few days back, Trinamul had even produced a letter allegedly written by a Morcha unit seeking an explanation from those who had left the hill party and joined Trinamul.