Leaders of anti-TMC alliance in Darjeeling meet Guv, seek deployment of central forces even after panchayat polls

Kolkata, June 29  The leaders of the anti-Trinamool Congress alliance in the hills of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong, met West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Thursday and pleaded for the latter’s intervention so that the central armed forces remained deployed in the hills for some time even after results for the forthcoming panchayat elections in the state are announced on July 11.

For the panchayat polls, eight parties have formed United Gorkha Manch, consisting of BJP, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Hamro Party, Gorkha National Liberation Front, Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League, Sumeti Mukti Morcha and Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Party, have been formed in the two hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Their principal opponent in the hills is the alliance of Trinamool Congress and Anit Thapa-led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM)

A delegation of theUnited Gorkha Manch, led by BJP MP from Darjeeling, Raju Bista, on Thursday met the Governor and asked for his intervention in the continuing presence of the central armed forces in the hills following apprehension of post-poll violence there.

After the meeting, Bista told newspersons that like the plans the Trinamool Congress and BHPM alliance are also trying to create tension in the hills over the rural civic body polls. “The activists of our alliance partners are receiving regular threats on this count. So we have demanded continuing central forces deployment even after the results are announced because we anticipate major post-poll violence,” he said.

However, Trinamool Congress’ Darjeeling Hill president and the party's Rajya Sabha member Shanta Chhetri alleged that the opposition alliance partners are spreading wrong messages about the hills. “They are trying to mislead people. The strange thing is that such alliances surface only before the elections. After the elections are over they just vanish,” she said.

--IANS

src/uk