As Gorkhaland sentiment persists, BJP looks to continue Darjeeling winning streak

Regional outfits that can determine the polls for the larger parties have declared their allegiances, with GJM backing the BJP and one of its breakaway factions on the TMC’s side

BJP supporters at an election rally in Darjeeling on Sunday. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

4 min readDarjeelingApr 22, 2024 10:44 PM IST First published on: Apr 21, 2024 at 09:30 PM IST

During the 104-day shutdown in the Darjeeling Hills in 2017, Pashan Rai was among the thousands who supported the separate Gorkhaland state demand spearheaded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). With the GJM supporting the BJP this time, Rai, a taxi driver, feels the community’s demands may be heard now.

“The BJP did not do any work for 10 years after 2009. But in the last five years, (incumbent Darjeeling MP) Raju Bista has done a lot of work. The GJM is also supporting the BJP, which we wanted. Therefore, he should be given another chance to fulfil the promises,” said the 32-year-old.

The Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency in north Bengal, which goes to polls in the second phase on April 26, is set to witness a three-cornered contest. Regional parties that play a key role in shaping public opinion on the national parties’ candidates have already taken sides.

The GJM led by Bimal Gurung, the face of the 2017 agitation, extended support to the BJP earlier this month. A GJM faction called the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), however, has been with the state’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) since the 2021 Assembly polls.

The BJP has been winning Darjeeling since 2009 while the TMC has never won the constituency. While Jaswant Singh and S S Ahluwalia, who won in 2009 and 2014, respectively, weren’t fielded again, 2019 winner Raju Bista, who won by more than four lakh votes, is in the fray again this time.

Vote shares in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in the last two general elections.

“The state government has done nothing for Darjeeling and exploited people. The Central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to developing the region. People will once again vote for development,” said Bista who unlike the previous BJP MPs is from the Gorkha community.

Although the BJP manifesto does not mention the Gorkhaland issue or the inclusion of 11 Gorkha sub-tribes in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was scheduled to hold a public meeting in Darjeeling on Sunday but could not attend due to bad weather, addressed the community’s demands in an audio call with Bista.

“I want to tell my Gorkha brothers and sisters that the BJP is with you in your fight to get justice and we will ensure that you get justice. The Constitution will give you justice under its provisions. We are considering including 11 Gorkha sub-tribes in the ST list,” Shah said. Targeting the TMC and the Left, he added, “They only ensured bloodshed in the hills. Only the BJP can bring peace in the hills.”

The Gorkhaland sentiment still runs deep among Darjeeling’s residents. “It will never change no matter who says otherwise. With the GJM joining hands with the BJP, we feel we are closer to our dream,” said local shopkeeper Bandana Gurung, among several who echoed this sentiment.

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Three of the seven Assembly segments of the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat — Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong — have a majority of Gorkha voters who generally vote en masse for the same candidate. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the BJP won five Assembly segments, including Darjeeling and Kurseong, while BGPM won Kalimpong. The TMC won the Chopra seat.

The BGPM, which won the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) elections in June 2022, has thrown its weight behind the TMC’s Darjeeling candidate Gopal Lama, a former bureaucrat. “We are confident of a victory. The state government has done a lot of development in the hills with the GTA’s help. The BJP, despite winning the seat since 2009, has done nothing,” Lama said.

Further altering the political landscape is the Hamro Party, which won in the 2022 Darjeeling municipal polls and has joined the Opposition INDIA bloc in a boost to the Congress. The Congress candidate for Darjeeling is Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP) national president Munish Tamang who joined the party in March. “The BJP is not serious about the demands of the Gorkha community. They didn’t do anything in the last 15 years. People here need an alternative,” he said.