Bhattacharya (left) and CPM leader Jibitesh Sarkar with the leaflets published by the party on Sunday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Darjeeling/Siliguri, April 27: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to sit for one last round of talks with the Bengal government tomorrow to try and obtain permission for a rally in Siliguri, failing which the party will organise an indefinite hunger strike from May 1.

The meeting will be held at the Siliguri Circuit House at 4pm.

“We have already told the state government that we want to hold a meeting in Siliguri on any day between April 28 and 30,” said Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha. “If there is no breakthrough at tomorrow’s meeting, groups of 11 Morcha supporters will sit on hunger strike in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Mirik, Siliguri and the Dooars.”

The state government has so far refused permission to Morcha to hold its political programmes in Siliguri, describing the situation in the trade hub as “tense”.

The Morcha has been accused of creating part of the tension by its decision to include Siliguri and the Dooars in Gorkhaland, the new state it is demanding. Giri, however, said the party is keen to “assimilate with the people of Siliguri in a peaceful and democratic manner”.

The Morcha further claimed that the town would “economically benefit” if it becomes a part of Gorkhaland. “Siliguri will invariably be our business capital,” said Giri.

The Morcha leaders held closed-door talks in Pintail Village this evening after party chief Bimal Gurung returned from the Sankosh. Morcha marchers had yesterday planted the party flag on the bank of the river to demarcate the “territory” of Gorkhaland.

Earlier, an eight-member Morcha delegation attended a meeting with state home secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarty, but staged a walkout after both sides refused to budge from their stands.

In another development, the Darjeeling district committee of the CPM has printed a two-page appeal in Bengali, Nepali and Hindi against the Morcha’s brand of politics and the potential conflict between the plains and the hills.

“We will distribute the leaflets in every household across the Siliguri subdivision. In the hills, however, our supporters have been asked not to distribute them because we fear that it will draw fresh attacks from the Morcha. Instead, we will hand over the leaflets to passengers in buses, taxis and other vehicles bound for the hills,” Siliguri MLA and state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said today.

Over the past few weeks, the CPM has accused the Morcha of threatening its supporters and ransacking its offices in the hills.