Darjeeling, Aug. 1: The Gorkha Rashtriya Congress (GRC) has decided to meet Pawan Kumar Chamling and Nar Bahadur Bhandari later this month to discuss the possibility of merging Darjeeling Hills with Sikkim.

The party, which was formed with the sole agenda of merging the two hill regions, hopes to receive support from political parties on the merger issue after the meetings.

Darjeeling was part of Sikkim till it was given away as a grant to the East India Company in 1935.

As people of the two regions share a common culture, language and history, the GRC feels that the only viable solution to address the problem of the hills lies in a merger.

“We have no other political objective apart from merging the two regions. Even during the Lok Sabha election, we refrained from openly supporting any party and will do so even during the council elections. Our sole objective is the merger of Darjeeling and Sikkim,” said party president D.K. Bomzom.

Chamling had said earlier that he was against merging Sikkim with Darjeeling.