The Congress on April 2 announced Munish Tamang as its candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat. The election for Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat is scheduled to take place in the second phase of polling on April 26.
Mr. Tamang, the former national president of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP), joined the Congress in New Delhi last week. He will be supported by the Hamro Party (HP). Ajoy Edwards, chief of the Hamro Party, had also joined the Congress.
The development has turned elections in Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, into a three cornered contest. The BJP has nominated sitting MP Raju Bista while the Trinamool Congress has fielded Gopal Lama.
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Mr. Bista had won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in 2019 by the margin of over four lakh votes. To make the contest interesting BJP’s Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma had filed nomination as an independent candidate.
The people of Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, which comprises three constituencies — Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong in the hills and four in the foothills — Matigara-Naxalbari, Siliguri, Phansidewa, Chopra have been electing BJP MLAs since 2009. The constituency has been electing BJP MP since 2009, Jaswant Singh (2009-14), S.S. Ahluwalia (2014-19) and Raju Bista (2019-24).
