Will resolve Gorkha issue in constitutional manner without dividing Bengal: Amit Shah

Gangarampur/Manikchak: Union Home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the BJP, if voted to power in West Bengal, will resolve the Gorkha issue in the Darjeeling hills in a constitutional manner without dividing the state.

Addressing a poll rally in Gangarampur in Dakshin Dinajpur district, Shah referred to the BJP’s election manifesto to offer a host of north Bengal-centric development projects.

“I want to tell my Gorkha brothers of Darjeeling that, once in power, the BJP will not only develop an eco-adventure hub in the hills, but also resolve the Gorkha issue in a constitutional manner without dividing the state,” Shah said.

The century-old demand of the Nepali-speaking Indians in the Darjeeling hills for a separate state of Gorkhaland has repeatedly taken violent turns.

Despite the formation of the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) in 2011 to administer the upper reaches of Darjeeeling and parts of the foothills, violent agitations took place till as late as 2017.

The region witnessed multiple twists and turns over political partnership between the local Gorkha parties, like the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), and bigger players like the BJP and TMC where the demand for a separate Gorkhaland have always acquired political centre stage.

In the upcoming polls, the TMC is in a strategic seat sharing alliance with the Anit Thapa-led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BJPM), a breakaway faction of Bimal Gurung’s GJM, and has left the Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong seats to its partner.

The BJP, on the other hand, has yet again secured the support of Gurung, its former alliance partner in the hills, although the saffron party is directly contesting the polls from the region this time.

Laying his thrust on the issue of illegal immigration in West Bengal, the Union home minister said that the BJP will end political violence, syndicate and cut-money raj in the state and evict infiltrators with priority. “Press EVM buttons next to the lotus sign so hard that once they are pressed in regions of north Bengal, infiltrators across India can feel the electric shock,” he said.