As key hill leaders — Anit Thapa, Ajoy Edwards, Raju Bista — expressed hopes of victory for their respective parties in these Assembly polls, a message of restraint surfaced from veteran politician Binay Tamang, drawing from past miscalculations where rally crowds promised more than they delivered.

Thapa, the president of Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), who visited a mandir in Kurseong town before voting, said his party was confident of winning all three hill constituencies — Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong.

“We received positive feedback from people that the BGPM will win Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong,” said Thapa, also the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chief executive.

Ajoy Edwards, the chief convener of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF), who is also contesting from the Darjeeling seat, said this time the hills were ready for “Parivartan (change)”.

Darjeeling BJP MP Raju Bista expressed a change in power for Bengal, not just in Darjeeling.

These three parties had drawn the biggest crowds in their rallies.

However, Binay Tamang, who also headed the GTA from 2017 to 2019, issued a caveat to the three parties.

Speaking to The Telegraph after casting his vote, Tamang said: “Drawing from my experience, I would like to tell the political parties that the crowds in the rally and party events do not necessarily translate into votes in the hills.”

Tamang contested the 2019 Darjeeling Assembly bypoll, and his rallies drew huge crowds.

On the other hand, Neeraj Zimba Tamang, the GNLF leader who was contesting on a BJP ticket, could hardly organise public meetings back then.

“I used to think that even if only the people who attended my rallies voted for me, I would confidently win,” said Tamang.

The hill leader said that polling day feedback from his party cadres had boosted his morale even more. “During elections, party cadres organise lunch. I’d get a call saying they have run out of meat in a particular area. If I were to estimate the number of paper plates used in the lunch, I should have easily polled between 70,000 and 80,000 votes,” said Tamang.

When the results were declared, Zimba had polled more than 88,000 votes. Tamang was a distant second with 41,000 votes.

Tamang admits that in 2019, people were angry with the way the Trinamool Congress government had tried to suppress the Gorkhaland agitation in 2017. Tamang was seen as a Trinamool ally even though Mamata’s party had fielded a candidate against Tamang for the Darjeeling bypoll.

“The main thing is that leaders should not be confident seeing the footfall in their rallies,” said Tamang.

The election loss cost Tamang dearly. He was literally thrown out of his party, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Binay faction), despite being its president. Tamang later joined Trinamool and then the Congress, but was expelled from the latter in 2024 for anti-party activities. He is now largely inactive politically, although he supported Edwards in this election.