Anit Thapa’s BGPM moves early, names candidates for hill constituencies

Darjeeling: Hours after the official announcement of the schedule for the forthcoming Bengal assembly election, Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), an ally of the TMC, announced its candidates for Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Kurseong constituencies.

At around 7:30 pm on Sunday, a press release by BGPM President Anit Thapa made the list public. “To strengthen the voice of regionalism in the upcoming West Bengal Legislative Assembly election scheduled for April 23, 2026, the official candidates of the BGPM will be as follows. Kalimpong- Ruden Sada Lepcha; Darjeeling- Vijay Kumar Rai and Kurseong- Amar Lama.”

Though the announcement was made public on Sunday, BJPM have been projecting the trio and had started a campaign also, holding meetings specially in the rural belts. In this way, they have managed to get a head start with the stance of other parties not being made public yet.

Incidentally, Ruden Sada Lepcha is the sitting MLA from the BJPM in the Kalimpong constituency. This is the second time he is contesting the Assembly elections from Kalimpong. While Vijay Rai is an academician, Amar Lama is a lawyer by profession and a seasoned politician. In the last assembly elections, the BJP had bagged the Darjeeling and Kurseong seats, while the BGPM had bagged the Kalimpong seat. GNLF General Secretary Niraj Zimba had contested under the BJP’s banner, backed by other Hill political outfits (GJM, GNLF, CPRM) and emerged victorious. In Kurseong, the BJP candidate BP Sharma had won. Interestingly, a few weeks ago, he shed the saffron mantle and crossed over to the TMC.

The BJPM, the party in power in the hills, has given a clarion call to hill political outfits to unite in order to save regionalism and especially regional politics. They have alleged that the BJP is attempting to end regionalism in the hills. The BGPM claims that TMC has not encroached on this and rather allowed BGPM to decide on the candidates, thereby championing regional politics.

There are talks of some political parties in the hills coming together and forging a separate alliance sans TMC or BJP. The Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF) is the forerunner of this idea.