(Top) A deserted Chowkbazar and motor stand in Darjeeling. (Suman Tamang)

Darjeeling, May 7: Today, it was like any bandh day that the people of Bengal are so familiar with: no shops were open — not even one selling paan — and a deserted town greeted tourists who outnumbered the few locals on the streets. Neither was there any activity in the tea gardens.

But this time, there had been no call for a shutdown. Only that people had shut everything down to attend a rally of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in Siliguri.

Garden sources confirmed that only six of the 70-odd estates in Darjeeling were open today. Tea labourers who attended the meeting are expected to work on Sunday instead.

While there was not a single taxi available, the number of private vehicles plying could be counted on the fingers. Tourist spots like Lloyd Botanic Garden and Dhridham temple were open, but there were few visitors. Instead, most of them had lined up early in the morning for the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s famed joy ride to Ghoom and back. Since the demand for the ride was high, the DHR officials attached three bogies to the train, which usually has two compartments.

There were no reports of tourists being stranded in town as most of them had left last evening.

“We had apprised the tourists about the expected situation in Darjeeling today. Only tourists bound for Gangtok stayed back and vehicles from Sikkim had been booked for them. Others had left last evening. However, we had some people who were supposed to check in today but it is unlikely that they will make it this evening,” said Naresh Yonzone, an executive of Hotel Anand Palace.

Tashi Pencho, the proprietor of Hotel Seven Seventeen, echoed him: “Most tourists who were supposed to go today had checked out yesterday.”

To tourists, however, it came as a shock that an entire town could empty out “just to attend a meeting”.

“People are telling me that there is no bandh here but everything is closed. It is amazing that an entire town has emptied just to attend a political meeting,” said Rajeev Mehta, a tourist from Delhi.

While schools and colleges were shut, no business was conducted in banks and other government offices. Attendance in government offices was almost negligible with many employees having applied for a day’s causal leave.