Bimal Gurung, the Morcha president, felicitates supporters of the party who were on hunger strike demanding the scrapping of the Sixth Schedule bill at the Town Hall on Friday. The felicitation took place after the selection of office-bearers. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Kalimpong, March 14: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s meeting to select a new set of office-bearers in different wings of the Kalimpong branch witnessed a lot of drama today with party members shouting slogans for their favourite candidates.

The drama unfolded at the Town Hall where hundreds of activists had assembled from early in the morning. At the very start of a rather chaotic meeting it became apparent that the selection of office-bearers would be anything but a smooth affair with activists openly hankering over posts.

Some sections of the jam-packed auditorium resorted to sloganeering in support of their respective candidates.

When it became obvious that tussle for positions in the party was being enacted in the open, Morcha secretary Roshan Giri took the microphone and requested journalists to leave, forgetting for the moment that they had been invited by the party.

This is not the first time that reporters have been prevented from covering events. During the no-confidence vote in the Kalimpong Municipality on January 24, Morcha activists had stopped journalists from entering the office of the civic body to report the incident.

Harka Bahadur Chettri, a central committee member of the party, however, tried to soothe ruffled feathers. “Although I was not present when the incident occurred, I feel it could have been handled in a more diplomatic manner. I apologise to the media for what was an unfortunate incident,” he said.

Chettri was also at the receiving end of sloganeering by the section of party activists who favoured Kalyan Dewan as the branch present. As it turned out, Dewan was selected to the post, while Samuel Gurung was nominated secretary. The remaining office-bearers will be selected on a later date.

The women and youth wings of the party in Kalimpong will be headed by Nanita Gautam and Pravin Rahapal respectively.

Shift in loyalty

Bimal Gurung, the vice-chairman of Darjeeling Municipality, has announced that he along with two other commissioners — Jigme Sherpa and Lhamu Sherpa — has resigned from the GNLF. The leaders have not yet joined any other party.