Darjeeling: Demands for Gorkhaland and a three-cornered fight in unpredicatable Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat

The politics in Darjeeling is as unpredictable as the hill weather as it is privy to a unique political culture with multiple hill-based political parties which shift their support between the Trinamool and BJP. The demand for statehood for Gorkhaland and the predicament faced by teagarden workers, especially regarding minimum wages, remain the main issues in Darjeeling as the constituency goes to polls on April 26 in the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
Considered a stronghold of the BJP, Raju Bista, originally from Manipur, is the BJP candidate contesting for a second time. This time, there is a three-cornered fight –– Trinamool candidate Gopal Lama, a former bureaucrat and son of the soil is pitted against Congress’s Munish Tamang and BJP’s Bista.

Lama had served as the Darjeeling additional district magistrate and then as an OSD (Officer on Special Duty) in GTA until 2017.

Darjeeling is the only seat in Bengal which has been won thrice consecutively by the BJP from 2009-2019. In 2009, it was won by Jaswant Singh when BJP hardly had any presence in Bengal. In 2014, SS Ahluwalia won the seat and then Raju Bista in 2019. In 2014, BJP had won two seats in the state –– Darjeeling and Asansol by Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo respectively.

Bista is the only candidate on whom the saffron party has reposed faith for a second term. He had won the seat in 2019 with the highest vote margin of four lakh votes. Bista claims he will win with a record five lakh vote margin this time.Of the seven assembly constituencies, Trinamool has an MLA in Chopra which is in the foothills but under Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency. Five assembly constituencies are with the BJP. However, sitting MLA of Kurseong, Bishnu Prasad Sharma, is fighting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate, as his demand to fight the seat as the “son of the soil” was not met by BJP.“I am not leaving BJP but I want to contest the seat as a son of the soil. Bista is from Manipur,” Sharma said, after filing his nomination as an Independent candidate.Meanwhile, hill party BGPM has MLA Ruden Sada Lepcha who had won from Kalimpong constituency in 2021, with support from the Trinamool.

Gorkhaland issue
The main issue in Darjeeling for decades remains the demand for a separate statehood for Gorkhaland. This has been a major concern from the time of the Left era. Darjeeling has seen violence and agitation, led by the GNLF and its leader Subhas Ghising, for years. The Gorkhaland movement in the 1980s became very powerful in the hills.

In 2017, tensions escalated with a violent 100-day agitation by Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), demanding separate statehood. The violent agitation led to 11 fatalities. However, the Trinamool government managed to establish peace and Gurung has been in hiding for long.

In a political rally in North Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hinted that a political solution would be considered to this issue. At a recent public rally, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in an audio message, also said that the Gorkhas will get rightful justice.

However, none of them have directly spoken about separate statehood. The Trinamool Congress strongly opposes the division of the state and the creation of Gorkhaland.

Suman Bhattacharya, political analyst said, “BJP top leadership does not want to be responsible for the division of Bengal and thus the demand for separate statehood for Gorkhaland is touched subtly.”

Bista said, “Darjeeling has been cheated by CPI-M, Congress and Trinamool Congress for years. We have faith in BJP and a solution is under consideration. The region has been deprived of real development in the Trinamool regime.”

Anit Thapa, also a former GJM member, who floated his own party Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), clinched the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration elections. He is supporting Trinamool candidate in the hills Gopal Lama.

Anit Thapa said, “BJP has never kept its promises. It always made fake promises. It is time we focus on development as done by Trinamool Congress.”

Minimum wages of the tea garden workers and the shutdown of tea gardens are other major issues here. As the tea garden workers of the region grapple with poverty and wage issues, Trinamool Supremo has distributed land deeds to the workers, provided them alternative housing and given them benefits of Swasthya Sathi health cards and other social welfare schemes.

Volatile hill parties
Hill political parties remain pretty volatile. Formerly with the GJM, Binay Tamang, former chairperson of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the autonomous body governing Darjeeling, joined the Congress last year. Just three days before the elections, Tamang was suspended for six years from the Congress for supporting BJP candidate Bista. Thapa, also was with GJM and came to politics under the leadership of Gurung.

Thapa said, “Gurung was my leader but later I found my way in politics.”

After Gurung went from the hills after the 2017 incident, Tamang and Thapa came to prominence.

GJM chief Bimal Gurung, who is back in the hills, has supported Bista but in 2021 assembly polls, he supported Trinamool. His political outfit is now weak and has multiple factions. Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) also supports Bista.