Darjeeling, April 15: As crackers were burst by GNLF supporters to celebrate their chief?s success in getting Delhi to mull granting a constitutional status to the DGHC, the Opposition said nothing short of Gorkhaland was acceptable.

Challenging Subash Ghisingh to raise the demand for Gorkhaland, People?s Democratic Front (PDF) chief Madan Tamang said: ?Why cannot he demand Gorkhaland at this moment? He is the one who had led the movement for a separate state. What is stopping him now??

Tamang alleged that Ghisingh would now become ready to ?accept anything? to save his face before the DGHC election. ?Ghisingh is talking about constitutional guarantee only after we raised the issue during our campaign in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election. Now, Ghisingh is willing to accept anything as he knows he has to show the hill people something,? he said.

According to the Opposition leader, special provisions under Article 371 of the Constitution will only safeguard the rights of the people.

?Look at Sikkim, which, too, comes under Article 371 (f). The article only empowers the governor to safeguard the identity of the ethnic people. This is not what we want,? reiterated Tamang.

The Centre yesterday agreed to explore options of granting the DGHC either a Sixth Schedule status or special provisions under Article 371.

There are, however, indications that the state government was more in favour of the special provisions.