GJM MLAs not to take part in RS poll

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Sunday said it would not participate in the March 30 Rajya Sabha election in West Bengal unless its demand to include areas from Dooars and Terai regions in the Gorkha Territorial Administration was met.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung told journalists after a meeting of its top leaders at Mongpu, 35 km from Darjeeling, that all three MLAs of the Darjeeling hills would not participate in the voting.

The meeting was also attended by John Barla, the expelled leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad which is opposed to inclusion of 396 mouzas of Dooars and Terai into the GTA.

Mr. Barla was expelled because he had supported the GJM’s demand.

“We will not move away from our demand till the 396 mouzas of Dooars and Terai are brought under the GTA,” Gurung said after the three-hour meeting which took place at the Rabindra Bhavan at picturesque Mongpu.

Insiders in the party indicated that the actual reason for the GJM’s decision to stay away from the RS election lay in the refusal of the Trinamool Congress to allow its candidate Suman Pathak to be one of the four RS candidates from West Bengal.