CPM minister gets to enter Darjeeling hills

During the day,Bhattacharya visited the CPM party offices in the hills,something unthinkable even six months ago. The minister went to Kurseong to attend a party meeting,which was attended by a good number of CPM activists.

Meanwhile,AlI Bengal Gorkha League (ABGL) supporters gheraoed Darjeeling police station and later took out rallies demanding the arrest of Gurung and those of his associates involved in the Tamang murder. The ABGL is planing a bigger movement soon,said its Darjeeling Town Committee General Secretary Mohan Sharma.

On Friday several Bengali,Hindi and Nepali regional papers reprinted the story on the telephonic conversation that was first carried by The Indian Express on Thursday. “Your story has created a stir both in the plains and the hills. People have now understood who the real culprits are,” Bhattacharya told The Indian Express.

The government,however,has chosen to tread cautiously on the issue. “The issue is very sentisitive and any wrong move on our part will tilt the balance against the government. The Chief Minister is aware of the whole thing and is keeping a watch,” a senior state government official told The Indian Express.

Other leaders from Siliguri also joined the chorus in demanding the arrest of the Morcha’s top leadership. “The Indian Express has unmasked the top Morcha leaders. We demad a CBI inquiry into the whole incident,” Gautam Dev,leader of the Trinamool Congress councillors in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation,said on Friday.

Shankar Malakar,a Congress leader of Siliguri,too demanded the arrest of the senior Morcha leaders. “The telephonic conversation proves beyond doubt that Gurung,Giri and some of the other GJM leaders were involved in Madan Tamang’s murder. They should be arrested immediately,” Malakar said on Friday.

The Morcha leadership,on its part,is still trying to float a conspiracy theory. “It’s all an attempt of the state government to malign us,” Roshan Giri said in Darjeeling on Friday.