The Assembly poll bugle in Darjeeling has been blown over a fierce debate around loyalty to chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Two prominent political parties of Darjeeling, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) helmed by Anit Thapa and the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF) led by Ajoy Edwards, are at the centre of the debate.
The BGPM, which controls the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and most panchayats in Darjeeling hills, and the IGJF, the main opposition in the GTA, are going hammer and tongs over it.
Edwards recently triggered the debate by questioning whether Thapa could work for Gorkhas by being a Trinamool ally. “Can Anit Thapa work for the benefit of Gorkhas by being an ally of Trinamool?” Edwards told a party gathering in Darjeeling.
Trinamool is against any further division of Bengal. Many in the hills are still critical over the allegedly highhanded manner in which the Trinamool-ruled state government handled the 2017 Gorkhaland agitation, an issue Edwards has been raising of late.
“Hill leaders are talking about regionalism…. We do not want regionalism that is about bowing before Didi (Mamata). We do not want a regionalism that involves sending the police to arrest our own brothers for demanding Gorkhaland,” Edwards said.
Thapa, who is not known to respond to Opposition allegations or be critical of them, however, decided to respond this time around.
“I heard Ajoy bhai’s speech. They repeatedly call (us) dalal (agent), but look at the person who is calling us dalal,” Thapa told his party workers in Darjeeling on Monday, holding up a photograph of Edwards with GNLF president Mann Ghisingh and Mamata Banerjee.
“Please take a look at the photograph. First he was in alliance with Trinamool,” said Thapa. “He was the first to join hands with Trinamool. So isn’t he also a dalal, if he calls me dalal?” said Thapa.
Edwards had met Mamata when he was with the GNLF.
Thapa then showed a photograph of Edwards with BJP MP Raju Bista. GNLF later became an alliance of the BJP. Then, Thapa showed a third photograph of Edwards with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Edwards had supported Congress Lok Sabha candidate Munish Tamang from Darjeeling during the 2024 parliamentary elections.
“If we are one dalal than he is three times dalal,” said Thapa accusing Edwards of not understanding politics and the need of alliance in politics.