The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) dissolved its central committee on Saturday, with the members of the party’s highest committee taking moral responsibility for the party’s recent delisting by the Election Commission of India.
The EC delisted the party from the list of registered unrecognised parties on September 19 for not contesting an election in the last six years.
On Saturday, the GNLF called an emergency meeting of the central committee along with representatives of the trade, women, ex-servicemen and other frontal organisations.
“During the meeting, central committee members were of the opinion that they must take moral responsibility following the EC’s decision to delist the party,” said N.B. Chhetri, former GNLF MLA and central committee leader.
The leaders then requested GNLF president Mann Ghisingh to dissolve the central committee and form an ad hoc committee in line with the provisions of the party’s constitution. "Accordingly, our party president dissolved the central committee and he will form an ad hoc central committee in the next few days,” said Chhetri.
GNLF central committee leaders said it was a collective decision to support the BJP in previous polls.
In the 2019 Assembly bypoll and 2021 Assembly polls, GNLF secretary-general Neeraj Zimba contested the Darjeeling seat but on a BJP ticket and won both times.
The party will approach the EC for a review. “The EC has given a 30-day window for aggrieved parties to approach them for a review. We are in the process of going for a review,” said Chhetri.
Despite close ties between the hill party and the BJP, a section of GNLF leaders is not keen to seek the BJP government’s help to get registered again even though Zimba had written to Union home minister Amit Shah for his intervention in the matter.
“The EC is a constitutionally autonomous body. Seeking the government’s intervention in this case does not send the right message,” said a GNLF leader.
The EC delisted 474 parties from across India, including 12 from Bengal, for their failure to participate in elections in the last six years.
The GNLF had signed historic documents like Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council accord with the Centre and state even before the party was registered in 1989, Chhetri said.
The GNLF was formed on April 5, 1980. It ruled the hills for 20 years from 1988 to 2008.