Darjeeling, July 16: The Darjeeling
District Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Joint Action Committee will
write to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung requesting him to
support academician Mahendra P. Lama as the Lok Sabha candidate from
Darjeeling.
The decision was taken at a a joint action committee meeting here on Sunday.
The SCs and STs
make up 43 per cent of the hill population and their support for Lama is
bound to put the Morcha under pressure.
The current Darjeeling MP is the BJP’s Jaswant Singh.
“The joint action
committee has decided to approach Bimal Gurung, requesting him to
support Mahendra P. Lama on the ground that Lama is not just a
well-known academic but an institution in himself. He is also a son of
the soil,” said Hem Baraily, general secretary of JAC.
Lama, a Darjeeling
resident, is based in Delhi. He is the pro-vice-chancellor of Indira
Gandhi National Open University. He was the founding vice-chancellor of
Sikkim University till 2012 and member of the national security advisory
board.
“I will approach
all parties, including Morcha and leaders of different communities. I do
not have plans to pull down the parties in power but want to work with
all as my agenda and that of other parties (from hills) is the same with
regard to Gorkhaland,” said Lama, who is an ST.
He said he would contest as an Independent and consensus candidate. “We will also seek support from the plains.”
Baraily, who
expressed gratitude to the Morcha for adopting a resolution for the SCs
and STs in GTA jobs on Saturday, said: “We will wait for 20-25 days for
his (Gurung’s) reaction after which we will take a stand on the issue,”
A Morcha leader said: “We have not discussed the issue.”
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