Darjeeling MLA Neeraj Zimba on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the demand to merge the Darjeeling hills and Sikkim.

Zimba is the secretary-general of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) but won the Darjeeling seat on a BJP ticket in 2011.

The letter comes after former Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri wrote to Modi rooting for the Darjeeling-Sikkim merger.

“I write to respectfully convey grave concerns arising from recent representations submitted to your esteemed office, advocating the merger of Darjeeling and Kalimpong district with the State of Sikkim,” read Zimba’s letter.

The Darjeeling MLA has said that while such proposals may be couched in the language of “cultural fraternity and administrative conveniences”, “they, are, in essence constitutionally unsound, strategically risky and politically misdirected”.

Historically, Darjeeling and Kalimpong were parts of Sikkim, but the region was gifted to the British in 1835 by the Rajah of Sikkim.

Sikkim, which was a separate kingdom, was merged with India in 1975. After the merger, Sikkim enjoys certain political and cultural safeguards under Article 371 (f).

Zimba raised the special provisions of Sikkim, the geostrategic location of the Himalayan state and the demand of Gorkhaland to oppose the Darjeling-Sikkim merger.

“… I place before you an earnest appeal: let us not allow the legitimate demand for Gorkhaland to be redirected or diluted through an unmandated reconfiguration,”
wrote Zimba.

Harka Bahadur Chhetri had written to the Prime Minister on June 26, stating that the demand was “rooted in the deeply shared historical, cultural and ethnic relationship between the people of Darjeeling-Kalimpong and Sikkim”.

The political leadership of Sikkim have opposed the merger theory.

Recently, three people, one from Sikkim and two from the Darjeeling hills, who have been advocating the merger of the two regions, were arrested on charges of misinterpreting their meeting with Sikkim officials and using the official logo of Sikkim’s 50 years of statehood without authorisation.