Darjeeling, Feb. 25: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha seems to be warming up to the Bengal government’s proposal for a dialogue to end the stalemate in the Darjeeling hills.

Bimal Gurung, the president of the Morcha, today, told The Telegraph: “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 meet the chief minister in the capital tomorrow.

Today, Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi appealed to the Morcha to withdraw the bandh, break the fast and respond to the chief minister’s invitation.

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

The Morcha president did not speak about such preconditions, but instead 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 discussion held in Calcutta on February 13, where the Morcha had demanded the immediate removal of Subash Ghisingh, the caretaker administrator of the DGHC, and a confirmation of a visit by the parliamentary committee that is scrutinising the Sixth Schedule bill.

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

Mahindra P. Lama, the vice-chancellor of Sikkim Central University who visited the protesters in Darjeeling, said the “movement was heading in the right direction” but emphasised the need to ensure that the protest remained democratic.

Lama said if the special status was imposed, it would create a rift among the people in the hills. Not only that, he said, chances were that a separate district would be formed out of Siliguri. The Morcha wants Siliguri to remain a part of Darjeeling district.

Binay Tamang, the press and publicity secretary of the Morcha, today claimed that Baber Gazmer, the GNLF commissioner from Ward 1, had switched over to the Morcha, taking the party’s tally in the Darjeeling Municipality to 16 against the GNLF’s 12.