The Centre has decided to invite only those stakeholders aligned with the BJP for tripartite talks to discuss Darjeeling issues.

The meeting called by the Union ministry of home affairs is scheduled to be held in Delhi’s North Block on Thursday after nearly four years, building pressure among hill participants.

Sources said that Darjeeling MP Raju Bista and Neeraj Zimba, a GNLF leader who won the Darjeeling Assembly elections on a BJP ticket, are the two elected representatives to be invited to the tripartite meeting.

“Representatives of the GNLF, the CPRM, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the SUMETI Mukti Morcha and the Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha have been invited to the talks,” confirmed Zimba.

These parties are all aligned with the BJP. The list of participants will include Mann Ghisingh, the president of the GNLF, and Bimal Gurung, the president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

B.P. Bajgain, the BJP MLA from Kurseong, who does not share a good rapport with Bista, has not been invited. Ruden Sada Lepcha, the Kalimpong MLA from the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), an ally of the TMC in the hills, has not been invited either.

“I have been most vocal for Gorkhaland state and the fact that I have not been invited clearly suggests Gorkhaland will not figure in the talks,” said Bajgain.

The BJP, which had been winning the Darjeeling parliamentary seat without a break since 2009, had promised a permanent political solution (PPS) for the Darjeeling region in its 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto.

The BJP did not define PPS but most in the hills interpreted it as Gorkhaland state. However, the PPS did not figure in the BJP’s 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifesto.

“The Centre has not invited those parties which are happy with the present set-up (the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, currently helmed by the BGPM),” said Zimba. “The PPS will be a major agenda of the talks apart from other issues like tribal status (for 11 hill communities)."

The fact that the BJP allies are under pressure to deliver can be gauged from the fact that the GNLF has plastered posters across Darjeeling, Kurseong, Mirik and Kalimpong, demanding an immediate solution to Darjeeling hills.

“We want immediate resolution of our long pending political issues under the provisions of our Constitution,” one of the GNLF posters read.

Apolitical Gorkhaland Activist Samuha on Wednesday held a dharna in Darjeeling to press for a separate state.