Kalimpong, March 9: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has divided the Kalimpong municipality area into four zones and formed committees as part of its ongoing exercise to restructure the party and extirpate factionalism.

The four committees — urban zonal committee (UZC) I, UZC II, semi-urban zonal committee (SUZC) I and SUZC II — will replace the earlier town committee. UZC I will comprise municipal wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 11 and 12, while UZC II will consist of wards 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Wards 13, 14, 15, 16, 18 and 23 form SUZC I and wards 17, 19, 20, 21 and 22 are part of SUZC II.

The Morcha held a public meeting here today to select the office-bearers of UZC I. D.C. Khati was chosen the president of the committee in the presence of the party president, Bimal Gurung. Tara Lohar and Anand Garg were selected vice-presidents and Pratibha Kumai named the secretary.

“The office-bearers of the other three zonal committees will be selected over the next three days,” said Binay Tamang, the Morcha assistant secretary.

The Morcha had embarked on the exercise to restructure the party in the subdivision more than a month back. So far, 26 zonal committees have been formed by primarily dividing the DGHC constituencies, also called samastis, into a minimum of two and maximum of four zones, depending on their size in terms of area and population. That means the zonal committees are being formed in place of the samastis and the lone town committee.

For instance, Samasti 24 now has four zonal committees in Sinjee-Samthar-Yangmakum, Gitdabling, Loley-Kafer-Khani and Pabringtar-Nimbong-Pemling; while the smaller Samasti 26 has been divided into Sangsay and Mungpong zonal committees.

Explaining the rationale behind the new structure only in Kalimpong, Morcha spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri said unlike in the Darjeeling and Kurseong branches, factionalism had been the bane of the party here. “The existence of different groups is hurting the image of the party. This exercise is aimed at giving a more cohesive look to the party.”

Once all the committees are formed, the party will allow them gestation period, and depending on the response of the people, the subdivisional branch will be formed.