Political parties in the Darjeeling were overwhelmed on Monday when the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sent a letter to the decision Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s (GJM) author Bimal Gurung-drove group and expressed that the plan of the gathering assembled in Delhi on Wednesday (October 7) had been changed from “issues identified with Gorkhaland” to “issues identified with Gorkhaland Territorial Administration” (GTA).

The GTA is the local autonomous body in the Darjeeling hills, led by the Binoy Tamang-led faction of the GJM supporting the TMC.

The meeting has been called by Union Minister of State (MoS) G. Kishan Reddy for MHA at the North Block office of the Ministry in the national capital.

HK Dwivedi, the newly appointed secretary of Bengal and district magistrate (DM) of Darjeeling, S. Ponnambalam, has been asked to attend the meeting.

The first letter was issued on 3 October and the second was sent two days later. Both letters are marked “most immediate”.

Significantly, both the letters are marked as “President, GJM” and the address mentioned is from the party’s founder Bimal Gurung’s office in North Point Singamari, Darjeeling.

Gurung signed the GTA agreement on behalf of the undivided GJM in July 2011.

The first letter was issued on October 3 and another was sent two days later. Both the letters are marked “most immediate”.

Gurung, who founded the GJM and launched a 104-day bandh in the Darjeeling hills in 2017 to demand a separate state, has since been charged by the state under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) Was 1967.

In November 2017, Gurung’s former lieutenant Tamang suspended him and his colleagues in his absence.

Anit Thapa, a leader of the GJM’s Tamang faction and chairman of the GTA’s board of administrators, said on Sunday, “The Center is fooling the Gurkhas. It has called a meeting as the Bengal assembly elections will be held next year. A court order said that both Gurung and Tamang are the presidents of the GJM. How can Gurung be invited alone for tripartite talks? ”

On Monday, Thapa was not accessible for input.

GJM pioneers, who have a place with the Tamang group, said they were amazed that the Center changed the plan of the gathering.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat threefold since 2009 by fashioning a partnership with the GJM. In 2019, the BJP had a partnership with the GJM’s Gurung group, the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), and other littler slope parties.

Since 2009, the BJP has been promising to locate a perpetual political answer for the long-forthcoming requests of individuals of Darjeeling, Siliguri, the Terai, and the Dooars district. The guarantees were made in the BJP’s political decision proclamations in 2014 and 2019 also.

Although not invited to the meeting, the chairman of the GNLF Darjeeling branch committee, Ajoy Edwards, first welcomed Centre’s move.

He had said that the GNLF is also an ally of the BJP. Reacting to the second letter, Edwards said, “We will hold our meeting in Darjeeling on the same day and take a call.”

TMC spokesperson and Dum Dum Lok Sabha member (MP) Saugat Roy said the Center has asked for a disturbance in the meeting as assembly elections are due in about six months.

“There is no official reason for calling the meeting. The Center simply wants to create unrest in the Darjeeling hills. Also, the letter is addressed directly to the state government officials. We had repeatedly told the Center that this should not be done and instead communication should be sent to the state government, ”Roy said.