A candlelight march organised by the Morcha in Kalimpong on Monday.(Chinlop Fudong Lepcha)

Darjeeling, Feb. 25: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha appears to be warming up to the chief minister’s call for a dia- logue to end the stalemate in the hills.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung told The Telegraph today: “If the state government sends us an official invitation, it can be placed before the party’s central committee for discussion. We might attend the meeting, but so far there has been no such communication.”

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had yesterday invited all opposition parties in the hills for talks in New Delhi, where the CPM politburo meeting is being held.

Six parties from the hills — except the Morcha —agreed to send their representatives to the meeting tomorrow.

Gurung’s party had said it was ready for talks if a meeting was convened in the hills.

Today, the Morcha chief did not talk about such conditions, but stressed the need for “an official communication”.

“The chief minister can express his thoughts to the media but there must be an official communication. In the past, we had attended a meeting but the experience was not too good,” said Gurung.

He was referring to the talks in Calcutta on February 13, where the Morcha had demanded the immediate removal of Subash Ghisingh, the caretaker administrator of the DGHC, and confirmation of a Darjeeling visit by the parliamentary committee that is scrutinising the Sixth Schedule bill.

The government had then asked for a couple of days, following which the Morcha suspended its fast. However, with the government later saying it was not possible to remove Ghisingh before March 24, the day when his tenure as council administrator ends, the Morcha renewed its agitation.

Binay Tamang, the publicity secretary of the Morcha, today said the GNLF councillor Baber Gazmer had switched to the Morcha, taking the party’s tally in the Darjeeling municipality to 16. The GNLF has 12 councillors.

Mahindra P. Lama, the vice-chancellor of Sikkim Central University, who visited the protesters in Darjeeling, said the Sixth Schedule status would create a rift among the hill people.

Not only that, he said, chances are that a separate district would be formed out of Siliguri. The Morcha wants Siliguri to remain a part of Darjeeling district.