The CPM’s Darjeeling candidate, Jibesh Sarkar, in Siliguri on Monday. (Kundan Yolmo)

Alipurduar, March 16: Joachim Buxla today participated in a motorcycle rally of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, riding a red Pulsar from Kalchini to Alipurduar to defy the RSP diktat that had asked party leaders to stay away from the tribal forum.

The RSP had been for sometime objecting to the four-time MP hobnobbing with the Parishad, one of the reasons why Buxla was denied a ticket for the Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat this year, a party source said. Manohar Tirkey, the junior public works minister, has been fielded in place of Buxla. “The party had told us not to attend any programmes of the Parishad or the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha,” Tirkey said.

The Parishad had organised the rally from Ghoshpukur near Siliguri to the Sankosh on the Assam border to highlight its four-point demand, one of them being that the government should assure the tribals that the Terai and the Dooars would not be separated from Bengal.

The Morcha wants the region to be part of Gorkhaland that it has been demanding. The Parishad is against the Morcha and its statehood movement. The other three demands of the Parishad are: Alipurduar should be declared a district, close gardens to be reopened and the East-West Corridor should be constructed through NH31C via Malbazar, Birpara and Hasimara.

After Trikey’s candidature had been announced, Buxla’s supporters from Garopara demonstrated in front of Sunil Banik, the district committee secretary of the RSP, at the Kalchini party office. Later, when they wanted to submit a memorandum to the leaders in Alipurduar, they were not allowed to enter the party office there.

The MP claimed that he had always been with the poor tribals and would remain with them. “I participated in the rally because I support the four demands. These are the demands of the people of the Dooars,” said Buxla.

John Barla, the president of the Terai Dooars Committee of the Parishad, said the Adivasis wanted government assurances on the demands. “If we do not get them, we will not cast our votes.”