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Kalyan Banerjee asks Kolkata police to begin criminal proceedings against Governor under sections 186 and 189 of IPC; Indian constitution says something else

TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee demanded that the governor of West Bengal be removed and be charged with a criminal case for obstructing the duties of public servants.

The terms between the Bengal governor and the TMC reached a new low when Dhankar questioned the raids by Kolkata Police at offices of three CAs in Kolkata. These came after an aged middleman, Govind Aggarwal was arrested, and was accused to be a link in a network and web of certain Shell companies. Kolkata is known for the network and the labyrinthine connections between Shell companies and umpteen number of post box companies, the latter being companies whose existence is just a post box in a cramped room.

Referring to inputs from CA fraternity, Dhankar had termed the arrests and raids as politically inspired. This did not go down well with the TMC with the Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee stating that it amounts to influencing the investigation.

Upping the ante, TMC MP from Serampore Hooghly, Kalyan Banerjee, alleged that the Governor had links with criminals in BJP party. The MP further asked Kolkata Police to file a criminal case against Dhankar under sections 186 and sections 189 of the IPC.

Section 186 of the Indian penal code lays out the definition of charges of obstructing the work of public servant and Section 189 defines the threat of injury to public servant.

But, the provisions in the Indian constitution, specifically Article 361 (2) states that neither the President, nor the governors of states can be charged with any criminal case(s) till the time he/she is in office, providing them immunity.

Dhankar has been known to have sour relations with TMC, but this is a new turn when he is trying to meddle into the investigation of the Kolkata Police, and has triggered a barrage of reactions from the TMC leadership in Kolkata.

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Mamata Banerjee on the field campaigning for polls 2021, says Bengal does not bow to money

polls 2021

After an interval of eight months, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is back in the campaign battlefield for the upcoming state polls.

Bengal CM Banerjee picked Bankura as the venue of her first public rally after the pandemic triggered disruptions and lockdown. This is most likely due to Union Home Minister’s massive outreach in the same turf barely 20 days ago when the saffron party tried to reach out to the tribals. The schedule of the CM was preponed as she took a chopper with TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee.

TMC is now gearing up for the state polls of 2021 where its main opposition and challenge is BJP. Bankura contributes two Lok Sabha seats, both won by the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections only a year ago. As per votes polled, TMC is lagging behind in at least 14 Vidhan Sabha seats which take the Bankura district high on the priority list given its tribal & backward caste composition.

Banerjee speaking to her party cadres reminded them that TMC stands for grassroots & that is what has built its base, the workers. She also asserted that she is monitoring every party activity at each level, further stressing that she is the ‘main observer’ of every maneuver in the party.

Political strategist Prashant Kishor’s teams have been camping in every Vidhan Sabha constituency since months now, keeping every MLA’s details and submitting their reports.

Banerjee said, “The group (IPAC) is helping me. If anything happens in your area, I am the only “observer” not as a leader but as a worker.”

She further added, “There has been a systematic change in Trinamool Congress since its tie-up with IPAC which has irked few leaders within the party & the most recent one being sitting TMC MLA Mihir Goswami who has claimed, that the ‘reins of the party’ are no longer in Mamata’s hands.”

It must be noted that the Bengal CM has been engaged with steep administrative work due to the cyclone & pandemic’s twin attack in the state but now with barely a few months left for her biggest challenge, she has returned to steer ahead the party. She exclaimed, “I will work for the people, and for this party till I am alive.”

Banerjee further instructed her party workers over monitoring and surveillance, “There are few grabby, even though very few in numbers, I am asking all my workers to keep an eye. Who is visiting homes at 02:00 am; who is talking over the phones late at night. Keep all the information. Keep information about those taking their cars out late at night without reason for work.”

Without naming BJP, the CM continued, “those who want to buy Bengal with money, should know that Bengal does not bow before money”. It is perhaps in anticipation of horse-trading before the upcoming polls, a situation witnessed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka during the state polls.

The differences between West Bengal Minister Suvendu Adhikari and TMC are out in the open when he took out a separate rally from the party in Nandigram. Being a popular face in “jangalmahal” he has remained absent from the CM’s Bankura tour while carrying on his schedule elsewhere. Recently, Dilip Ghosh, had tried to pull Chatradhar Mahato from TMC into BJP, which makes the presence of Mamata Banerjee in the campaigning all the more demanding.

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Desperate for win in Bengal election 2021, Dilip Ghosh asks Chatradhar Mahato to leave TMC and join BJP

Dilip Ghosh

Dilip Ghosh, BJP state president asked Chatradhar Mahato to leave TMC and join BJP.

This is surprising given that BJP leaders like Dilip Ghosh had time and again castigated Trinamool Congress for inducting Maoist leaders into the TMC fold. Taking a sharp U-turn, likely in a bid to up the ante for the upcoming Bengal polls, Dilip Ghosh asked the former Maoist leader Chatradhar Mahato to leave TMC and join BJP.

BJP state president stated that the saffron party would give Mahato respect, instead of the fooling treatment given by TMC. Dilip Ghosh added in his tirade of blames that Mamata Banerjee has betrayed the Adivasi-Mahato community and that people like Mahato should switch to BJP.

Who is Mahato

Chhatradhar Mahato, who had emerged from non-mainstream politics and had led a successful people’s movement, was released from jail in February 2020. In September 2012, Calcutta High Court had granted Chhatradhar political prisoner status along with 8 other activists. This ruling made the then government at centre consider challenging the decision, as they feared that more naxalites would seek ‘political prisoner’ status. High Court had convicted Mahato under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) along with other three PCPA members-Sukhshanti Baske, Sambhu Soren, and Sagun Murmu and had sentenced them life imprisonment on May 12, 2015.

Mahato as the main leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), was arrested in 2009 for building up a movement against the CPI(M) with the help of the outlawed Maoist party. He was convicted in 2015 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Opposing police excesses in Jhargram district, he had led a tribal movement that catapulted him to prominence. At one point, he allegedly coordinated with the Maoists on one hand and the Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) leaders on the other, to build up resistance against the CPI(M) government. Despite being in jail, Mr. Mahato had contested in the 2011 Assembly polls and had bagged nearly 20,000 votes, which was an indication of his popularity in Jangalmahal.

However, following his arrest and the killing of Maoist leader Mallojula Koteswara Rao (Kishenji), the people’s movement in the western districts of Bengal has fizzled out. The TMC also partially lost grip in the backward tribal areas of Jhargram and Purulia.

Importance of his area of influence

In the panchayat poll of 2018, the BJP had bagged 42% and 33% seats in Jhargram and the adjacent Purulia respectively, far higher than its State average of 18%. In the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, the TMC lost both the Jhargram and Purulia seats to the BJP and even the adjacent ones, partly dominated by the tribals.

In this context, many in the area believe that Mr. Mahato can play a significant role in the political future of the area. It was also guessed that he may form a party which can pull a percentage of anti-TMC tribal votes, which in the last elections went to the BJP. This may be a reason why he was pulled into TMC after his release and now being asked by BJP to switch to the saffron party.

It is well-known that BJP is trying tooth and nail to try and isolate TMC on areas like Jangalmahal, issues related to minority appeasement, the influx of Bangladeshis into West Bengal, and policies like CAA, NRC, and NPR. In late October, Bimal Gurung had switched to support TMC in North Bengal, and recently AIMIM state unit chief-Anwar Shah has joined TMC, much to the chagrin of BJP. Therefore, the saffron party is trying to increase its area of influence in Tribal areas to counter such loss. Dilip Ghosh’s attempt to pull in Chatradhar Mahato indicates the level of desperation of BJP to win the Bengal polls next year.

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Shock to AIMIM as Bengal unit chief-Anwar Pasha jumps boat to TMC praising Mamata Banerjee

Anwar Pasha jumps boat to TMC praising Mamata Banerjee

In what came as a jolt to Owaisi’s AIMIM, West Bengal unit chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM), Anwar Pasha along with some of his colleagues joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday. Anwar claimed that the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party was only acting as a polarizer of votes which would help the BJP in the upcoming Bengal election.

Alleging that a few people are trying to steer the country towards destruction using religion, Pasha said that those who are eyeing Bengal at present, whether “wearing saffron or green”, should know that there is no place for creating religious divisions in the state. He added, “AIMIM has played a hand in the polarization of votes in Bihar and thus helped the BJP in forming the government there, but this will not happen in Bengal.”

Anwar was welcomed to the TMC fold by ministers Bratya Basu and Moloy Ghatak. He said that 30 percent of West Bengal’s population is composed of Muslims and also stressed that the political developments in Bihar cannot be allowed to be emulated in Bengal. He asserted that it is essential to stop these divisive forces. He also added, “There have been developments in Bihar and these forces are trying to now enter Bengal. For years now, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christians have been living here in peace but there is an attempt to create a divide and use votes to make inroads here.”

Urging Muslims in the state to stand by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he said that AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi should not come to Bengal.

Owaisi had said on Sunday that his party is deliberating to contest the West Bengal assembly elections due next year.

Mamata is the only CM to raise voice against CAA & NRC

Heaping praises on Mamata Banerjee, Anwar said that she was the only CM to raise voice against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC. He also said that people and political parties accuse her of running appeasement politics but this is not true because if she gives money to the imams then she also gives it to the priests. This statement of Anwar likely came as a response to the recent opinion expressed by ex Supreme Court judge Markandeya Katju, that some policies of Mamata Banerjee, like giving ex-gratia to imams, might hamper her prospects in the Bengal polls 2021.

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Matua Mahasangha looking forward to CAA-Mahua Moitra says there will be neither CAA nor NRC as long as there is TMC

CAA-Mahua Moitra

The Matua Mahasangha had raised the demand for implementation of the CAA as its leaders have been facing embarrassing questions from the community on whether the Act, billed by the saffron camp as a one-stop solution for citizenship issues faced by Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, would be implemented or just stay on paper.

An insider in the Mahasangha said, “The CAA was used as a major plank by the BJP to win over Matua voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The party won both the Bongaon and Ranaghat parliamentary seats with a significant Matua population. Now, people want its implementation.”

Shantanu thakur, a leader of the BJP aligned faction in the Matua Mahasangha, earlier this year had written to home minister Amit Shah for an early implementation of the CAA. At a time when there are rumours that the Centre has no political will to see through the CAA and also the contentious National Register of Citizens, Shah played the card less than a year ahead of the Assembly elections in Bengal. Shah surprised everyone by focusing on Bengal instead of Bihar, where the polls concluded recently. It showed that BJP was super-confident of NDA’s victory in Bihar, which ultimately materialized. The party now wants to up its game for Bengal polls.

CAA and NRC are expected to become major poll issues of BJP in the run-up to the Assembly elections in Bengal coming year. Recently, the PM had said that the Opposition had peddled the lie that the CAA will rob many Indians of citizenship and that none has lost citizenship because of the contentious law. Shah, however, did not say whether the refugees would get citizenship before the polls.

“I have a commitment to implement CAA in Bengal,” Amit Shah had said. He had further added, “The process of framing rules for CAA got delayed due to covid -19 pandemic. We are committed to it.” He had recently gone to the Matua Mahasangha Mandir at Gouranganagar, where he had asked the community members to increase ground activity in support of CAA. In the Matua Mahasangha, Shantanu Thakur was recently at the centre of a controversy, when he had sent a letter from the matriarch of the community, Binapani Thakur to the CM of Bengal asking to support the CAA. It was alleged by TMC that he had forged the signature of 100 year-old Binapani Thakur in the letter.

Speaking at a meeting of social groups of North Bengal, JP Nadda, a month ago accused the Mamata Banerjee led government of “divide and rule politics” and raked up the topic of the Citizenship Amendment Act. He informed that the framing of rules under the Act was underway and that it would be implemented “very soon” adding that ground is shrinking below the feet of Mamta Banerjee.

The comments from BJP leaders have not gone down very well with the Trinamool Congress, with Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra taking to Twitter to criticize the BJP leaders recently over the same.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra stated that as long as the Mamata Banerjee’s party was in power, there would be no implementation of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) in West Bengal. Moitra’s comment came after BJP MP and joint president of All India Matua Mahasangh, Shantanu Thakur, encouraged the GOI to execute the CAA as soon as possible.

Moitra was seen speaking on ABP Ananda, “We are not here to respond to what those uneducated and liars of BJP said. We are clearly stating that as long as we are in India, no one will have to prove citizenship in West Bengal.”

The Mahasangha’s move comes close on the heels of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent outreach bids, such as the Matua Development Board with a grant of Rs 10 crore and pattas for Matuas to ensure their land rights, a move she said would eventually benefit 1.25 lakh families.

At the Mahasangha rally, Shantanu said only the CAA could solve the problem of refugees. “Some people are misleading refugees by offering patta, but that can never ensure them citizenship. We want the Centre to take initiative to implement CAA fast,” he said.  “The delay has made people restless,” he further added.

As a result, the controversial CAA, which has made it easier for non-Muslim victims of religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to get Indian citizenship, was welcomed with much joy by Matuas. The roll-out of the Act would mean permanent citizenship for all them.

West Bengal is scheduled to go to the polls in less than six months. Amit Shah and party chief J P Nadda will reportedly visit the state at least once a month till the elections to mobilize cadres, who are currently engaged in a violent stand-off with TMC workers. The BJP has been currently on the rise in West Bengal. It had won 18 seats and over 40 percent votes in the 2019 general election and its surge has sounded a warning for the ruling TMC.

The Congress and the CPM have been seen to use violence to capture office and stay in power, and the TMC is said to have continued in the same vein. As the BJP hits the trail aggressively, sensing an opportunity in the anti-incumbency that may have built over Banerjee’s two terms in office, it seems keen on polarizing the voters around identity issues. And it will use tools such as the CAA and NRC, more than questioning the government’s record on corruption and unemployment.

TMC has been against the implementation of CAA since the beginning. Moitra said that the BJP had betrayed citizens who voted for them and is now questioning without any shame the citizenship of the voters who had brought them to power. “As a government, you lack humility,” she had said during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha.

Moitra, in her first speech in Parliament in June, last year, had caught people’s attention for pointing out the government’s “early signs of fascism”. She had said that the NRC, CAA, and National Population Register are “all tools in a Machiavellian design to first mark out and then disenfranchise and finally annihilate” Indians. “This is your biggest betrayal of those who voted for you. Nobody wants to be part of this ‘us versus them’ debate,” she said.

She also hit back at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda over his recent remark on the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). She further added that “Bengal will show the door to the saffron party before showing papers.”

Assembly polls are due in the state in April-May next year, and the fight for power in Kolkata promises to be a tough one as Banerjee will seek to return as chief minister for the third straight time.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

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TMC leader brings attention to the achievements of the TMC-rule in Bengal like Kanyashree, fast-track courts, and high rate of institutional birth

SPMB

BJP in West Bengal under Dilip Ghosh has been claiming that women in the state do not feel safe and not much was being done for them by the state government. To counter this assertion, state women development minister Dr. Shashi Panja on Tuesday highlighted the achievements of the government led by Trinamool Congress (TMC) in empowering women since it came to power in 2011.

Dr. Panja told reporters present at a press conference, “CM-Mamata Banerjee is the first political leader in Bengal who spoke about women’s empowerment. She not only said but also started different projects to empower the women of Bengal.”

The minister further claimed that while crimes against women have been increasing in other states, the government led by Mamata Banerjee was always working to empower women. She pointed out with confidence, “If we start to give details of government projects helping women and girl children, then we will not be able to complete this press conference in a day.”

Dr. Panja also said that the chief minister has always given women the respect they deserve, further adding that the government has issued cards in the name of the oldest woman in a family as part of the Swasthya Sathi project.

She also added, “Last year, we started the Rupasree project for the women of Bengal to assist them during their marriage. Already in one year, 5.58 lakh women have taken this help under the Rupasree project. Also, under the Mamata Banerjee government, institutional birth became the highest.”

Highlighting the state government’s efforts to keep women safe, the minister said, “After 2011, we have built 48 women police stations across the state. Before 2011, there were no police stations for women in the state.” She also claimed that Mamata Banerjee started fast-track courts across the state to specifically enable hearing cases of atrocities and crimes against women.

Dr. Panja also recalled that the government’s most talked-about project was Kanyashree. She added that so far Rs 9,369 crore had been spent to fund the scheme.

The much talked about Kanyashree scheme was launched to improve the life and the status of the girls by helping economically backward families with cash so that those families do not arrange the marriage of their girl child before eighteen years of age because of economic problem. The purpose of this initiative is to uplift those girls who are from poor families and hence cannot pursue higher studies due to tough economic conditions. It had been given international recognition by UNICEF. The United Nations, on the occasion of UN Public Service Day, in 2017, had awarded the United Nations Public Services award to the Kanyashree of Bengal government.

The Kanyashree Prakalpa had received various national and international recognitions for its design and features of good governance.  The most crucial award received by this scheme was the first place winner in UNPSA Award 2017 from Asia-Pacific category. It was also one of the finalists in GEM-Tech Awards 2016 organized by ITU and UN Women.

The Kanyashree scheme has two components-the first is an Annual scholarship of Rs. 1000.00, and the second one is a one-time grant of Rs. 25,000.00.

The annual scholarship is for unmarried girls aged 13–18 years enrolled in class VIII-XII in government recognized regular or equivalent open schools or vocational or technical training courses. Recently the bar of income has been withdrawn by Government of West Bengal, hence now every girl in the state can apply for that scheme.

TMC leaders and sources, while taking a dig at BJP, also pointed out that Banerjee was the most vocal leader against the BJP following the gangrape and murder of a Dalit woman in Hathras district in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh in September.

The author is a student member of Amity centre of happiness

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BJP asserts that it will transform Bengal into Gujarat if voted to power, while TMC leaders take potshots

MAMATA-DILIP

On Monday, a war of words was triggered between the TMC and the BJP, after Dilip Ghosh (State BJP President) argued that his party would work on ‘turning West Bengal into Gujarat’ once it comes to power in the state.

Taking a jibe at the former Left front leaders in the state, Ghosh stated that leaders such as Biman Bose, & former CM Buddhababu (Buddhadeb Bhattacharya) made sure that people here do not become doctors, engineers but migrant workers who seek jobs in other states like Gujarat. He added that BJP plans to transform Bengal into Gujarat once it forms government at Kolkata.

Ghosh further said, “Didi (CM Mamta Banerjee) constantly blames us of trying to turn Bengal into Gujarat. We say that we will definitely transform Bengal into Gujarat so that our children get jobs here and they do not have to migrate to Gujarat.”

This development comes when Amit Shah visited West Bengal after the poll victory in Bihar. BJP is now gunning for the 2021 Bengal polls. Amit Shah’s visit to Bengal is said to have soothed the nerves of BJP workers who are gearing up for 2021 polls in the state.

Senior TMC leader and state minister Firhad Hakim took aim at the BJP MP and asked him to leave Bengal and to go to Gujarat. Hakim further said that “Around 2,000 people were killed in the Gujarat riots in 2002. If we turn Bengal into Gujarat then people will fall victims to fake encounters. Hence, we do not want to turn Bengal into Gujarat.”

Hakim, in an attempt to hit an emotional chord also stated that this is Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengal and that people really need to decide whether to degrade Bengal’s cultural heritage or inherit the brawl communal politics from Gujarat.

Meanwhile, Ghosh asserted that his party will definitely defeat TMC’s North 24 Paraganas district president and state minister Jyotipriya Mullick in next year’s assembly polls. He stated that Mullick has hoodwinked the people of the state and acquired cut money from them and blamed Mullick of multiple scams including PDS scam.

Jyotipriya Mullick retorted back stating that BJP will draw a blank in the North 24 Parganas district.

BJP has recently appointed a new chief of IT team, more correctly the co-in-charge, Amit Malviya, keeping in consideration the state polls of 2021. Malviya arrived in the state on Monday. Party leaders in Bengal BJP saw Malviya’s appointment as a boost by the BJP’s top leadership for the battle on social media in the run-up to the upcoming Bengal polls.

The author is a member of Amity center of Happiness

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One place, one party, two rallies: TMC and Suvendu Adhikari

Suvendu Adhikari

There is a simmering conflict, or rather a sub-surface tension between West Bengal transport minister Suvendu Adhikari and the ruling dispensation in the state-TMC. Adhikari had recently taken a dig at party colleagues for visiting Nandigram after a gap of 13 years just before the 2021 state polls.

This had evoked a sharp response from the TMC which hit back at Adhikari allegedly for “helping BJP” by negating the contributions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the anti-land acquisition movement.

Indignation of TMC was exacerbated as Adhikari, who is one of the most influential members of the party did not once mention Banerjee or the party during a rally held by him to pay respect to martyrs of Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (Land Eviction Resistance Committee) on ‘Nandigram Dibas’. It was on this particular day in 2007 that some BUPC members were killed in police firing.

Mamata Banerjee buoyed by the crest of the wave of the anti-farmland acquisition movement, had succeeded in dislodging the 34-year-long rule of the Left Front in the state in 2011.

In this context, there have been rumours that Adhikari might leave TMC and join BJP as he had held a separate rally in Nandigram independent from the TMC rally.

TMC MP from Serampore, Hooghly, Kalyan Banerjee had said that the transport minister Adhikari was very much with the ruling party. He added, “There is no question of Suvendu not being with our party. He is very much with the TMC. He is a bright leader, who can be an asset to any political party. Some people are trying to mislead the people about his future prospects”.

Hinting at the possibility of Adhikari leaving the ruling party, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “TMC is like a cabbage. One by one its leaves are coming off. Once all leaves come off then there will be no cabbage.”

State Congress president and the party’s Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee must remember Adhikari’s contribution to her rise to power. Chowdhury added, “Singur and Nandigram movements were crucial in shaping what TMC is today. In Nandigram, the Adhikari family played the most important role. But today no one is remembering their valuable contributions”.

Adhikari and TMC senior leader and state minister Firhad Hakim who had addressed two different rallies at Nandigram, on the same day, took potshots at each other without taking any names. Hakim and another TMC MP Dola Sen blamed Adhikari without naming him, for strengthening the “hands of the BJP”.

Adhikari, who has been maintaining a distance from TMC’s top leadership for the last few months, said that he will never use the BUPC platform for “vested political interests” and will announce his next course of action from a political platform.

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Change of tide in Bengal Politics- Bimal Gurung breaks away from NDA and sides with TMC

A new political rift is taking place in West Bengal politics especially in the northern districts. Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) founder, Bimal Gurung who has been part of the BJP led NDA, has moved to a much politically promising and recognizing political party in context of the local politics. Gurung duly extended his support to Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) breaking ties with BJP.

Bimal had been out of public sight since 2017, since he was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act when violence erupted in the Hills concerning the demand for statehood. He pledged his support for TMC and wished to see Mamata Banerjee again as the Chief Minister of Bengal for the third time.

Bimal Gurung feels that having been with the NDA, the numerous attempts to get the Hill tribes recognized by the government has gone in vain. He shared with the journalists in Kolkata that after several meetings with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and the Home Minister, Amit Shah, none of the commitments made earlier in the past six years had been fulfilled. While the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has fulfilled all the promises she had committed with respective groups and organizations.

He further added that GJM will support the party that takes in consideration of the needs of the Gorkhas and the Hill tribes. All of this started with Bimal seeking BJP’s support to recognize the left out Indian Gorkha sub-tribes as Schedule Tribes and apparently this was to be done as per 2019 Sankalp Patra (Party Manifesto), which never took shape. Also, there were discussed commitments for the reservation of ‘Limboo’ and ‘Tamang’ Tribes in the legislative assembly of Sikkim.

GJM has been associated with BJP since 2009. It has played a crucial role in their wins in Darjeeling since 2009, and has helped in further seeking resolutions in Siliguri Terai and Dooars regions.

TMC has responded to Bimal’s political move and gesture on a positive note and has welcomed his action and shared a few lines on appreciating his move on the TMC Twitter handle.

Meanwhile, BPJ denied that it had promised a separate state to the GJM leader as mentioned by the State BJP chief, Dilip Ghosh. This decision by GJM is definitely being seen as a setback for the BJP in the North Bengal region that can potentially dampen the efforts for a favourable electoral result for BJP in the 2021 elections.

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Political parties in Darjeeling surprised as Centre changes Delhi meet’s agenda from Gorkhaland to GTA

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.