Darjeeling BJP MLA Neeraj Zimba has requested the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, to constitute a high-level commission “to examine the legal, historical and political context of Darjeeling’s merger with West Bengal” and recommend appropriate options for “administrative demerger or reorganization”.

Zimba is the secretary-general of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) but was elected as the Darjeeling MLA on a BJP ticket.

In his letter to the President, the BJP MLA said the territories that comprise present-day Darjeeling and its adjoining areas do not share historical continuity with Bengal.

“They (present day Darjeeling area) formed part of Kingdom of Sikkim until the early 19th century,” stated Zimba.

The GNLF leader said that while that stretch was temporarily annexed by Nepal and then restored to Sikkim through the Treaty of Titalya (1817), the town of Darjeeling was transferred to the East India Company through a deed of grant in 1835.

“Kalimpong and the adjoining Dooars were added (to British India from Bhutan) through the treaty of Sinchula (1865) after the Ango-Bhutan conflict,” read the letter.

The hill leader has also underlined that under British rule, those regions were governed as non-regulated, excluded, or partially excluded areas under the Government of India Act of 1919 and 1935. Not all laws applicable in the rest of the country were always applicable in those excluded areas.

“It was only in 1954, through the Absorbed Areas (Laws) Act, that Darjeeling was merged with West Bengal-not as an act of political will by its people, but as a unilateral measure for administrative convenience,” the letter read.

“This remains, to this day, a constitutional aberration awaiting redress.” Zimba referred to the recent tripartite meeting called by the Union home ministry, “wherein discussions were initiated to find a consolidated, constitutional, and political solution to the Gorkha issue”.

The MLA requested the President to initiate a national consultative process to find a solution and “constitute a high-level constitutional commission”.

Raising the demand, Zimba wrote: “To constitute a high-level Constitutional Commission to examine the legal, historical and political context of Darjeeling’s merger with West Bengal, and to recommend appropriate options for administrative demerger or reorganization.”