The Darjeeling Assembly election has become a high-stakes contest with Bimal Gurung, the president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, publicly announcing on Saturday that he would quit politics if his candidate lost the election.
Noman Rai, president of the Morcha’s youth wing, is contesting on a BJP ticket from Darjeeling. He filed his nomination on Saturday.
Gurung addressed a gathering of Morcha and BJP supporters at Chowrasta before the rally proceeded towards the district magistrate's office for filing of the nomination.
“If the BJP loses, if the Morcha loses, I will quit politics,” Gurung told the gathering.
The Morcha's Rai will mainly compete against Bijay Kumar Rai of the Anit Thapa-led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), and Ajoy Edwards, the chief convener of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF).
“If the BJP-Morcha candidate loses, Gurung would be in a spot as his political credibility will be at stake,” said an observer.
However, this is not the first time that Gurung has come up with stiff conditions. When Gurung was the undisputed leader of Darjeeling and was leading the Gorkhaland agitation, he had famously stated that he would “shoot himself on his forehead” if the Gorkhaland state was not formed by March 10, 2010.
Gurung purportedly tried to shoot himself at the Lichi ground in Kalimpong on March 10, 2010, as he suddenly reached out for his suitcase while attending a public meeting that day. Party supporters on the dais stopped Gurung from reaching the suitcase, which his supporters believed had a gun.
Morcha supporters had threatened the Kalimpong correspondent of The Telegraph against covering the drama, but the newspaper had proceeded to do so.
Opposition parties in the hills raked up Gurung’s deadline miss for years. “It seems that lessons have not been learnt,” said an observer.
Gurung lost control of hill politics after he emerged from his three-year hiding in 2021 to back the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 Assembly polls. Since then, he has not had much electoral success.
