Gurung in Kalimpong on Sunday. (Chinlop Fudong Lepcha)

Darjeeling, June 15: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s indefinite bandh will resume in the hills at 6pm tomorrow with an exemption for educational institutions.

However, the party will tread cautiously in the Terai and Dooars, where its supporters have been urged to tone down their campaign to relay hunger strikes from June 17.

In the hills, stock-up warnings went out today along with Morcha president Bimal Gurung’s promises of help during the supply squeeze.

“Please stock up whatever you can. If you run out of food, the Morcha will make arrangements to replenish stocks,” he told a rally at the confluence of the Teesta and the Rangit this afternoon. The bandh was relaxed from June 11 for people to stock up.

Insiders said the caution in the plains was prompted by concerns over clashes between Morcha supporters and cadres of the CPM and the RSP in the Dooars towns of Malbazar, Hamiltonganj and Oodlabari. The Morcha is also worried about the fallout of last week’s attack on elderly tourists from Calcutta in the Chapramari forest by its supporters.

Morcha leaders have decided the campaign in the region should be in the form of a “social movement”.

They are expected to come down soon and help the “victims” of the recent violence.

“We don’t trust the Bengal government to stand by these victims,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.

The Morcha is also counting on the “Sikkim factor”, hoping the shutdown will push the state, suffering because the disruptions in supplies, to open talks with the Centre.

The hill outfit has planned pickets at Rangpo — in the Kalimpong subdivision — on the highway to Sikkim from tomorrow.

“We want Sikkim to talk to the Centre about the way its students were harassed in Siliguri and the economic hardship it is facing,” Giri said.

Morcha insiders spoke about starting a “dialogue” with the Centre, though some senior leaders seemed averse to having Bengal Congress leaders like Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and Pranab Mukherjee at the talks.

There was also a buzz about “talks without preconditions” — without Gorkhaland on the agenda.

“When Mukherjee said yesterday that Gorkhaland will not be discussed, we are not sure if he was speaking as a state Congress leader. Such statements are made by the Union home minister,” a senior Morcha leader said.

He made it clear that none of the three hill MLAs would attend the June 17 all-party meeting in Calcutta.

The residents of the hills seemed prepared for the shutdown. “We replenished stocks for 20 days. There is no reason to panic,” said Raja Banerjee, the manager of a retail chain.