All political parties from the hills should be invited to the next round of tripartite talks on an interim council proposed to be set up in Darjeeling, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has said.
“So far, the Centre has been inviting only one party. Other parties too have a say in hill affairs,” he said, in a reference to talks between the Centre and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has put its demand for Gorkhaland on the backburner and settled for the interim hill council to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
All political parties in Darjeeling should be invited to the seventh round of talks on September 7, he said while delivering the Ratanlal Brahmin Memorial Lecture at Darjeeling Gymkhana Club last evening.
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The CPI(M) leader also said he would raise this demand in the Parliament and take up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.