Darjeeling’s Gymkhana Club. (Suman Tamang)

Darjeeling, Nov. 18: Darjeeling’s iconic, 99-year-old Gymkhana Club cannot hold its annual general meeting or election because Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung says so.

On September 15, D.K. Pradhan, club member and Morcha central committee leader, wrote to then club secretary Roshan Kant Ghisingh: “I have been directed by the Hon’ble chairman (actually president) GJMM that the club AGM and election be deferred and postponed for the time (being).”

The Telegraph has a copy of the letter.

The Gymkhana is supposed to elect a committee every September to run the club. Following Pradhan’s letter, all 14 committee members resigned after appointing him club administrator on October 1, sources said.

Observers said a club faction that lost power in May 2007, after a sex scandal on the premises, was now plotting a return but wanted the election put off till it was sure of victory. This faction had approached Gurung, Pradhan hinted.

Pradhan, former GNLF MLA from Darjeeling, told this newspaper: “There were animosities among club members and our president wanted to ensure that things became better with this institution.”

The Gymkhana, which has the Bengal governor as its ex-officio president and draws its 300-odd members from across India, is three months from its centenary celebrations.

Observers said club rules did not provide for an administrator, and that under extraordinary circumstances, either the governor or the district magistrate (club vice-president) could be appointed caretaker. They said the appointment of Pradhan, who is running the club with a committee of four, can be legally challenged.

The sources said Pradhan had called for nominations for a new 14-member committee, but added that elections were unlikely anytime soon and the new committee could be handpicked.