KOLKATA/DARJEELING: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Bimal Gurung, in hiding for three years since the violent statehood agitation of 2017, resurfaced dramatically in Kolkata on Wednesday to announce that his severance of ties with the BJP and support for “Mamata Banerjee as the chief minister of Bengal” in next year’s assembly election. Gurung, however, added that he was not budging from the Gorkhaland statehood demand and blamed PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah for failing to keep their promises.
“We were promised a permanent political solution for the Gorkhaland issue,” Gurung said in a hurriedly arranged press conference. “We were part of the NDA and made several pleas to the central government to hasten the process. In the past six years, neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nor Union home minister Amit Shah kept their commitments. They have not even granted tribal status to the 11 communities in the Hills despite the state government giving their nod.... We will now work hard to help Mamata Banerjee win the 2021 state assembly polls. That will be a befitting reply to the BJP.”
Gurung was first seen on Wednesday in an SUV bearing a Jharkhand licence plate, which sped towards Gorkha Bhavan in Salt Lake a little after 4pm. He was chased by a mob of television journalists for 10km to a star hotel in Kolkata’s central business district, where he spoke to the media.
Gurung has been implicated in 156 criminal cases, which includes charges under UAPA, and for the death of police sub-inspector Amitabha Malik. He had moved Supreme Court for relief. The apex court had asked him to appeal before Calcutta High Court, which is hearing his appeals. The closest the cops got to apprehending him was when the Bengal CID raided a resort in Sikkim on October 8, 2017. Five days later, the police claimed he was there in a shootout in Patlebas, which claimed Malik’s life.
He is now a proclaimed offender against whom the state had issued a red-corner notice. “I am neither a criminal, nor a terrorist,” he said on Wednesday. “I am a politician and I have come here with courage and conviction. Even if I am arrested, I will go happily,” he said, adding that he sought a “political settlement” for the “political cases” against him. Gurung, photographed at the wedding reception of a senior BJP leader’s son in Delhi in March, said: “I was in New Delhi. For the past month-and-a-half, I was in Jharkhand.”
Gurung’s pulling away from the NDA on Wednesday is the latest in a series of political flip-flops. Ahead of the 2011 assembly polls, GJM had allied itself with Trinamool Congress against the ruling Left Front. After Trinamool’s victory, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, along with the UPA government at the Centre, set up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) to govern the three Hills subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. In July 2013, Gurung resigned from the GTA to press for statehood. Ahead of the 2016 assembly polls, he parted ways with Trinamool to align with the BJP. Before the 2019 general elections, Gurung’s faction of GJM aligned with BJP, resulting in its candidate, Raju Bista, winning the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat.
Gurung said he was ready to talk to state government officials. “In the past three years, I have seen that Mamata Banerjee has kept her promises. She is like an idol to us now. Whoever is ready to work for the development of the Terai and the Dooars will get our support. We will soon start a discussion with the state government,” he said, claiming he hadn’t spoken to any state official or Trinamool leader yet.
“We welcome Bimal Gurung’s commitment to peace and the decision to withdraw support from the NDA while reposing faith in chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s leadership,” Trinamool said in an official statement. “BJP’s attempts to use the Gorkhaland issue for petty politics and their untrustworthy nature now lies fully exposed before the people of Bengal. We’re confident that all key stakeholders in the Hills, including political parties and the GTA, along with the civil society, will work together and join hands with us for the peace and prosperity of our motherland.”
GJM’s Benoy Tamang faction did not respond immediately to questions on whether the rival factions will now align. “It was due to the difference in our principles and thinking that we separated,” said GTA chairperson Anil Thapa. “We cannot work in his principles as we are against things like vandalism.... We want peace to remain in the Hills, like in the past few years. Politics will come and go and we will move forward with our principles.” The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) camp, which is in alliance with Gurung faction, did not react. GNLF leader Sandeep Limbu said they would wait for further developments before commenting.
Dilip Ghosh, the Bengal BJP president, said he wasn’t surprised at the development. “We knew he was reaching out to the state government, and we are keeping an eye on that. We want issues of the Hills to be resolved. If the stand-off ends, it would be good for everyone,” he said.