Darjeeling politics reached Agartala on Thursday as Ajoy Edwards, the chief convener of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF), shared a stage with Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma and Tripura’s Pradyot Debbarman at a “One Northeast” rally, part of an emerging cross-regional solidarity movement.
Edwards’s party is the principal opposition in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabha.
The rally was organised by Debbarman’s Tipra Motha Party of Tripura, weeks after leaders from different political parties made a formal announcement to constitute a pan-Northeast political entity.
“We are not part of the northeast, but we want to join hands with them so that the voices of Darjeeling and also those of Ladakh can be pushed forward more strongly at the national level,” Edwards told The Telegraph.
The “One Northeast” campaign looks to merge the political parties of the northeast into one entity with a single flag.
Edwards said leaders of Darjeeling and Ladakh were not looking at merging with the “One Northeast” but joining hands to take forward the “marginalised voices” in a stronger manner.
“I am in talks with leaders from Ladakh and Leh also. We are not part of Northeast, but the problems are similar. We want protection of our land, language, and culture. Since the demands are similar, we are currently working out modalities to be alliance partners while still retaining our singular party identity,” said Edwards.
On November 4, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma of the National People’s Party, Pradyot Debbarma of Tipra Motha, Daniel Langthasa of the People’s Party, Assam, and former BJP minister of Nagaland, Mmhonlumo Kikon, announced their decision for “a strong, unified, and indigenous political voice at the national level”.
On Thursday, speakers of different parties stressed that the dominance of national parties had been wiping out regional aspirations.
“The move is basically to have more bargaining power at the Centre. In democracy, it is simple mathematics in play,” said Edwards.
The Darjeeling hills, Dooars and Terai region are not part of the North Eastern Council (NEC), but this stretch breaks the geographical contiguity of the seven northeastern states with Sikkim.
Sikkim was included in the NEC by the Centre in 2002. Earlier, the NEC included seven states from Assam onwards.