The Morcha rally in Salugara. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Darjeeling, Jan. 6: The unannounced Delhi visit of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders has increased the level of anticipation in the hills, although there has been no information on the purpose of the tour so far.

“I have come to Delhi to look into the organisational set-up of the party. I am also suffering from a sore throat and will seek medical attention here,” Morcha president Bimal Gurung said over the phone from Delhi this evening.

The sudden visit of Gurung, along with key central committee members like Anmole Prasad (who has been the spokesperson in all major deliberations with the government), has heightened expectations.

A central committee member of the Morcha, who did not want to be named, had said yesterday that Gurung would be meeting senior “national level politicians” during his Delhi trip.

Party office bearers, however, refused to throw light on the developments in Delhi.

Binay Tamang, the spokesperson for the Morcha, brushed aside all “speculation” but admitted that there was a possibility of an announcement of “some development” in Delhi tomorrow. Roshan Giri, the party general secretary, also echoed him.

“There is also a possibility of Gurung visiting Dehra Dun,” a source said. The Morcha chief was expected to visit the place between January 3 and 6 on the invitation of a social organisation. But he could not make it following the violence at Rohini and the Kurseong court.

Ex-servicemen rally

In Siliguri, around 5,000 Gorkhaland Personnel and 4,000 members of the ex-servicemen wing of the Morcha took out a rally that began from Bhaktinagar Police Station on Tuesday. After traversing two kilometres, the procession culminated at Vikasnagar in Salugara.

This was the second rally organised by the ex-armymen in the plains after April 9 when they clashed with police.