Darjeeling back to normal on Wednesday. (Suman Tamang)

Darjeeling, May 26: The widow of Madan Tamang and the newly appointed president of the ABGL today appealed to the people here to unite and fight for the restoration of democracy in the hills.

At her first media conference, Bharati Tamang appeared composed and determined to fulfill “my husband’s wishes”.

“I have accepted the challenge to head the ABGL to respect the wishes of the hill people and of my party cadres. In democracy, the wishes of the people are the most important and I appeal to all to unite and fight for restoration of democracy,” said Bharati.

She appealed to her supporters to remain calm, five days after her husband and ABGL chief Madan Tamang was hacked to death before he was to address a public meeting in Darjeeling.

In Calcutta, director general of Bengal police, Bhupindar Singh, said the police have found several clues in the Tamang assassination case and would not hesitate to arrest anybody involved in the murder. “We’ve got several clues as the murder was in broad daylight. We have to arrest anybody whose name comes up during the investigation for involvement in the assassination. If there is a law and order situation because of these arrests, we will deal with that,” said Singh.

He, however, did not reveal what the “clues” were.

Tamang’s murder had sparked protests across the hills, and a stream of resignations from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had followed. But yesterday, Morcha chief Bimal Gurung returned to Darjeeling in a convoy of 100 vehicles, bulldozing the stirrings of defiance.

A day after severing links with the Morcha, two prominent leaders who had resigned from the party — Harka Bahadur Chhetri and L.B. Pariyar — took back their decisions. “People are not in favour of violence and everybody knows that violence cannot last forever,” Bharati said.

Pratap Khati, a senior ABGL leader, said the fight was not between the ABGL and the Morcha any more. “It is a fight between democratic and undemocratic forces.”

Bharati sounded confident about achieving Gorkhaland. “Restoration of democracy is the priority now and if we remain united, Gorkhaland can be achieved. I do not have any doubts,” said Bharati adding: “We will, however, have to work in a civilised way.”

Asked if the party would hold public meetings soon, Bharati said: “As of now we have not decided to hold any public meetings. We are in a state of mourning.” The ABGL has decided to remain part of Democratic Front, an anti-Morcha alliance of seven parties.

Khati, however, added that the party would hold condolence meetings across the hills soon. “We will start from Darjeeling,” he added.

Pranay Rai, the MLA of Darjeeling, today said he would resign from the Assembly if the state government failed to provide adequate security to the hill people. “The state has not been able to provide security to the leaders, forget about the common people. I will tender my resignation as MLA if the state fails to provide security to the common people,” he said .