Morcha supporters check a car 2km from Kalimpong to enforce the bandh. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

June 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s road to Calcutta snakes through Delhi.

Responding to a fresh invitation from Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to talks, the Morcha said this evening that it would talk to the chief minister but in Delhi as part of a tripartite meeting.

“We are ready to talk to the chief minister, but only in Delhi where the representatives of the Union government will be present,” Roshan Giri, the Morcha general secretary, said in Darjeeling this evening in response to questions on the chief minister’s fresh letter that had not reached the hills till late in the evening.

In the letter sent today, the chief minister has asked the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to meet him for discussions on the situation in the hills, state chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb said.

The resolution from yesterday’s all-party meeting was appended to the letter.

At the all-party meeting, which the Trinamul Congress and the SUCI boycotted, it was resolved to look at the Darjeeling council’s administrative and financial powers while keeping the present contours of the state intact.

Asked when the meeting would be called and whether any conditions had been set, the chief secretary said: “The chief minister’s letter has been sent to the Morcha, urging them to join for talks. The letter did not mention any date or time of the meeting.’’

The chief minister had said yesterday he was willing to have tripartite talks with the Centre and the Morcha. “But the foundation for such talks has to be laid through bipartite talks between the state and the Morcha,” Bhattacharjee had said.

Giri’s comments today virtually rules out the possibility of bipartite talks with the state government.

The chief secretary did not say if any condition had been set. Yesterday, the chief minister had said he had never set “pre-conditions” and that he wouldn’t do so in the future.

The Morcha had rejected the earlier talks offer because that letter had no mention of Gorkhaland.