Asok Bhattacharya (Below) Bimal Gurung

Siliguri, May 23: The results of the panchayat polls in the Dooars have made it clear that people there do not want their area to be included in the separate state of Gorkhaland demanded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Darjeeling district CPM leaders said here today.

“Morcha president Bimal Gurung, at a number of meetings in the Dooars, had urged residents to vote against the CPM and the Left allies. But as the results show, we have done exceptionally well in the Dooars, especially in Malbazar, Birpara, Metelli and Nagrakata blocks where the Morcha meetings were held,” Bengal urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said.

“We take this mandate as an outright refusal by the residents to express solidarity with the Morcha and its demands,” the CPM leader added. “People even voted us back in power at the Kalchini panchayat samiti, ousting the Congress.”

The district CPM leadership also thanked chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for clarifying his government’s stance on the Morcha’s statehood demand. A four-member delegation of the hill party met the chief minister in Calcutta yesterday. At the meeting, Bhattacharjee reportedly asked the Morcha to focus on greater autonomy for the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.

“We now expect the Morcha to play a responsible role in ending the stalemate in the hills through discussions with the state and maybe, the Centre,” Jibitesh Sarkar, a state secretariat member of the CPM, said.

Morcha leaders, however, denied the urban development minister’s claims.

“We had never passed any directive to the voters in the Dooars and always said they were free to vote for any candidate. The inference drawn by the CPM is wrong, as voting in the panchayat polls and expressing support for Gorkhaland are different issues. We still say that the residents of the Dooars support our demand,” Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said.