Darjeeling, Dec. 12: Two allies of the Opposition Peoples’ Democratic Front, the Gorkha Democratic Front (GDF) and the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), are set to merge within a month’s time, increasing the risks for Subhas Ghising’s Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) that seeks re-election in coming March.

Political observers here feel the merger will not only make it difficult for the GNLF to seek a fresh mandate in the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council elections next year but also form a stronger Opposition in the post-election scenario.

The ABGL, which had won just two seats last time around, will have a better playing field after the merger as it will be able to put up more candidates.

ABGL leaders feel the move will make the party, which had held sway over hill politics for 25 years before Ghising launched his movement for a separate Gorkhaland, more popular in the long run.

The party gave West Bengal its first Gorkha minister, D.P. Rai.

A series of talks between leaders of the two parties have already taken place in the past couple of months and according to a senior ABGL leader the modalities for the merger have almost been worked out.

“The ABGL leaders from Darjeeling will meet their counterparts in Kalimpong on December 14. The merger is likely to take place within a month’s time,” said an ABGL leader who did not want to be named.

“There has been a political vacuum ever since Rai died in 1981. The GNLF filled in the space left by ABGL. Now, we can hope to win back that support base in the Darjeeling hills,” he added.

The resurgence of the ABGL was witnessed in the 1999 DGHC elections, when two of its leaders — B.K. Rai and Shankar Mani Rai — won the council elections from Mirik and Gorubathan-Jhaldhaka.

Party leaders are confident that after the merger with GDF there would be several other regional parties in the hills ready to join hands with them.

The GDF, formed in the early nineties and led by Madan Tamang, is a constituent of the six-party People’s Democratic Front in which ABGL is also an ally.

“We will remain committed to the front even if the merger happens,” assured the party leader.

It is learnt that during the last PDF meeting, held at Darjeeling MLA, D.K. Pradhan’s house, the allies had mulled the idea of forging a single Opposition party in the hills to take on the GNLF.

The PDF comprises the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, ABGL, GDF, GNLF (C), BJP and the Congress (Hills).

“The discussions on having a single Opposition did take place but nothing concrete came out of it,” said a PDF member.

The ABGL has been at loggerheads with the GNLF, which to a large extent eroded its vote bank, ever since the latter was formed in the Seventies. After the bid on GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh’s life on February 10, 2001, the office of the ABGL on Ladenla Road was ransacked by a mob.