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SILIGURI: Elections to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), which has been due for more than five years, will be held soon, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday after meeting leaders of major political parties in Darjeeling.
“I am very happy that all the parties said that they will see to it that Darjeeling remains happy and peaceful. All parties are ready for the GTA elections,” Banerjee, who is on a four-day tour of north Bengal, told reporters after the meeting.
Leaders of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), the newly-formed Hamro Party, Jan Andolan Party and Trinamool Congress (TMC) met Banerjee at Darjeeling’s Richmond Hill area where she is staying in a government bungalow.
“Only Roshan Giri, the GJM general secretary, said his party will give some suggestions,” she added.
State government officials who accompanied Banerjee said GJM urged her to find a permanent political solution to some age-old issues issue before the GTA elections are held.
“We want the state government to find out a permanent political solution for the old problems before the GTA elections,” Giri told HT.
There was no discussion on the GJM’s 15-year-old demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland.
“Our stand on the issue remains where it used to be. Right now, we are focusing on the GTA polls,” Giri said.
After arriving in north Bengal on Sunday, Banerjee announced that she wants the GTA election to be held by May-June.
The GTA is a semi-autonomous development body set up in line with the 2012 tripartite agreement between the Centre, Bengal government and the GJM after a prolonged movement for a separate state. Since 2017, the GTA is being run either by nominated people or senior bureaucrats.
Eager to make inroads in the Darjeeling hills where it won the local Lok Sabha seat thrice in a row since 2009 with support from the GJM, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in its Lok Sabha poll manifesto in 2019 that it will find a permanent political solution for the hill region. The hill parties allege that the BJP has not done anything to fulfil its promise.
Before the 2021 assembly election, Banerjee announced that she will find a permanent political solution without the Centre’s help.
Anit Thapa, president of BGPM and Ajoy Edwards, president of Hamro Party, said they welcomed the state’s decision to hold GTA elections.
Hamro Party was formed three months ago. It won the Darjeeling municipality elections held recently.
Panchayat elections in the hills have not been held in 17 years. The chief minister said she will urge the Centre to allow three-tier panchayat polls to be held in the region.
Polls for the municipalities of Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik and the panchayat elections would be in six months, said Banerjee.
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