A rally by former Gorkha soldiers in Delhi to demand a new state. Picture by Prem Singh

New Delhi/Darjeeling, March 5: Subash Ghisingh today took his rivals’ line in demanding Gorkhaland, trying to pave the way for a comeback to Darjeeling a day before putting in his papers as the hill council’s caretaker administrator.

His party, the GNLF, had been harping on statehood since it realised how the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was making use of it to muster support.

Today, the GNLF chief went back to the same statehood call that had rocked the hills in the eighties.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ghisingh’s “subject” reads: “Carving out separate state of Gorkhaland within the framework of Constitution of India.”

A copy of the letter is with The Telegraph.

He held the Centre and the Bengal government responsible for the delay in granting Sixth Schedule status to the Darjeeling hills.

Ghisingh will send his papers to the Bengal governor after he reaches Siliguri tomorrow, a close aide of the GNLF chief said at Gorkha Bhavan in Delhi.

The GNLF chief announced at a news conference today that he would be going to Siliguri tomorrow.

The Morcha, which is ag-ainst the special status, has barred Ghisingh from entering the hills.

The months-old party is riding high on its twin victories: extracting an assurance from the state government that Ghisingh would resign by March 10 and successfully stalling the bill in Parliament.

“The people will not allow him to come to the hills. If he wants to resign in Siliguri, it is fine,” said Roshan Giri, the Morcha general secretary.

Giri, Morcha president Bimal Gurung and over 300 former Gorkha soldiers are now in the capital. The former soldiers assembled at Jantar Mantar this morning to demand Gorkhaland.

“Thousands of Gorkha soldiers had fought for India and now it is the duty of the Centre to do justice to the community,” Gurung told the rally.