Ghisingh’s house in Jalpaiguri. (Biplab Basak)

Siliguri, Feb. 2: A wary group of nearly 60 GNLF supporters from Darjeeling today reached Jalpaiguri town to persuade party chief Subash Ghisingh to return to the hills and resume political activities.

Most of the supporters refused to be clicked or identified. “Please ensure that our faces are not photographed. It will be difficult to go back to the hills then,” one of them said, hinting that the party’s bete noire, the Gorkha Janmkukti Morcha, might not be, too, happy about the GNLF reorganising itself.

Ghisingh, who turned down his supporters’ plea to return, however, said his party would soon launch activities across the hills.

Since Ghisingh left Darjeeling town under Morcha pressure, he has been staying at a rented accommodation in Collegepara.

“We have been bearing the brunt of Morcha’s movement for the past two years and want the atrocities to end,” said a youth who introduced himself as a member of the Darjeeling unit of the GNLF.

One of the delegation members who met Ghisingh, said: “He (Ghisingh) is apprehensive that his return to the hills immediately might lead to severe deterioration of law and order. He has asked us to be patient.”

Meanwhile, the Bangla O Bangla Bhasa Bachao Committee has protested the Morcha plan to hold a rally in the plains. “We have come to know that the Vidyarthi Morcha (the student wing of the Morcha) is planning a public meeting at Dagapur. If the administration permits, our workers will march to the venue and stop it,” said Mukunda Majumdar, the president of the committee.