Five councillors in Darjeeling municipality change sides

Earlier also, Edwards had alleged that Anit Thapa, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chief executive, was trying to bribe his party’s councillors to topple the civic body.

He took to Facebook on Thursday, “Anit Thapa carries on with hunting for our leaders. We will continue being with the people. You keep saying politics should not be brought in this but do politicking from behind. You say you brought in peace and democracy and then you buy our leaders with money so that you can be a dictator. ”

The Hamro Party, which was formed in November 2021, had won the Darjeeling civic polls early this year by bagging 18 of the 32 seats. The BGPM, which was formed in September 2021, had won nine seats, followed by Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) that won three, and Trinamool that had two seats.

The number of BGPM councillors in the civic body is 14 and the TMC has already expressed its support to Anit.

If it gets the Trinamool support, the BGPM seat tally will be 16 against the Hamro Party’s number that will come down to 13. Also, the BGPM claimed that one more Hamro Party councillor will join their party in the next few days.

The BGPM dismissed the allegations against Anit of breaking Ajoy’s party. Party spokesperson Shaktiprasad Sharma said, “Ajoy is saying all this out of frustration. He has no ability to lead. So no one wants to stay with him. We are not going to break anyone’s party.”