Union home minster Amit Shah missed addressing a political meeting in Darjeeling on Wednesday, but addressed the hill audience virtually from Malda, around 300km from the hill town.
In political rallies Shah has addressed so far in the rest of Bengal, he has said that if the BJP government is voted to power in Bengal, it will find a solution to the problems of the Gorkhas within the constitutional framework but without dividing Bengal.
For the Darjeeling audience on Wednesday, Shah tellingly left out the assertion “without dividing Bengal”.
This apart, Shah claimed that the Centre had to appoint an interlocutor as the Mamata Banerjee government had failed to meaningfully engage in three tripartite meetings over a period of one-and-a-half years.
The Union home minister accused Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee of not wanting to solve Gorkha issues and added that she and her officials in the Bengal government were not even meeting the centrally appointed interlocutor.
Pankaj Kumar Singh, a former deputy national security adviser, was appointed the interlocutor by the Centre in October last year.
“But don’t worry. On May 5, when we form the Bengal government, the BJP government’s priority will be to solve the problem of the Gorkhas, the problems of Darjeeling hills within the constitutional framework,” said Shah.
Shah promised that “false cases” against Gorkhas slapped during the Gorkhaland agitation would be withdrawn if the BJP was voted to power in Bengal.
The Union home minister also stated that he would address a public meeting at Sukna, on the outskirts of Siliguri town, but within the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) area, on April 21, where he would speak in detail on the issues concerning Darjeeling.
Shah was scheduled to address a public meeting at the Gorkha Stadium in Darjeeling's Lebong from around noon after landing at the nearby army helipad.
However, rain and fog led to the cancellation of Shah's helicopter ride.
Shah's speech on Wednesday from Malda was streamed virtually to the Darjeeling venue where a crowd had collected.
On April 21, 2024, the Union home minister could not land at the same Lebong helipad and address a BJP rally seeking votes for its Lok Sabha candidate Raju Bista.
"Inclement weather” had been cited as the official reason for the trip's cancellation back then, although the weather wasn't bad on that day.