Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Elections: Where Does Each Party Stand?

While the Hamro Party, TMC and BGPM will contest the elections, BJP, GNLF and GJM have vehemently opposed to it.

(Photo: Debayan Dutta / The Quint)

If one needs a measure on how controversial the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is for the political parties in the Darjeeling hills, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung’s fast-unto-death, should be an apt indicator. While deteriorating health has prompted him to withdraw the fast, his party still fights to cancel/defer the GTA elections.

Yes, this is the same Bimal Gurung who was allegedly behind the 100-day shutdown in the hills, and a violent stir which saw several lives lost, in 2017, the year in which the GTA elections were due.

This year, however, the GTA elections will be held on June 26, with the counting of votes scheduled for 29th. This comes amidst calls by several political parties and citizen groups to not hold the elections.

But before we talk about where each party stands in relation to the GTA elections, it is essential to understand the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and why it was formed.

The Hills Have a Violent Past

The hills have witnessed violent agitations since the 1980s over the demand for the creation of a separate state for the Gorkhas – Gorkhaland. The last of these agitations to date was the 100-day shutdown in demand for a ‘permanent political solution’ to the hills. As 11 lives were lost, Bimal Gurung resigned as the chairperson of the GTA and went into exile.

The GTA was formed in 2012 in a three-way agreement between Centre, West Bengal government and Gurung’s GJM. GJM had swept all seats in the only election to the body that was held in 2012. Since 2017, the body has been run by administrators, nominated by the State government. The current chairperson of the GTA is Anit Thapa, a close aide of Binoy Tamang.

Tamang was once a brother-in-arms of Gurung, but formed his own faction after Gurung went underground, and later Tamang joined the TMC, while Thapa formed his own party. Only the Gurung faction of the GJM is functional now.

There are 45 constituencies in the GTA with 922 polling booths. The Darjeeling sub-division consists of 17 constituencies, while the Kurseong and Mirik sub-division has 15 constituencies. The Kalimpong sub-division has 13 constituencies.

The elections this year will be conducted by the state’s hill and home affairs department, headed by the Chief Minister. The State Election Commission will not be involved in any way in the procedure.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha

GJM leader Bimal Gurung at a rally in Darjeeling.  (Photo: The Quint)

The GJM has always been on the forefront when it comes to the demand for a separate Gorkhaland, or a ‘permanent political solution’ for the Gorkhas.

Gurung had always sided with the BJP and had helped them create a footprint in the hills, at a time when the BJP was practically non-existent in the state. Since then, the BJP had been building a strong base in the hills with the help of the GJM. Meanwhile, the BJP had promised the GJM a permanent solution.

Gurung comes back from exile to pledge support to Mamata Banerjee and the TMC in the 2021 elections, as Banerjee promises to help them in the fight for a ‘permanent political solution’. Banerjee had left a seat for them in the hills, but they failed to win. The GJM had previously won three Assembly seats in the 2016 elections.

However, the Morcha has demanded that all provisions of the 2011 Memorandum of agreement be implemented before the elections which include the formation of the subordinate election board. They have also demanded the inclusion of 396 Mouzas from the Terai and the Dooars within the jurisdiction of the GTA.

The GJM has said the MoP also calls on the government to honour “in letter and spirit” a Memorandum of Agreement that was signed in 2011. The proposals also include transfer of all the departments mentioned in the 2011 document to the GTA. Some of them have yet to be transferred, Gurung claimed in the letter.

It is for this demand that Gurung went against his new ally, to launch a fast-unto-death.

GTA does not fulfil the aspirations of the Gorkhas. Those who take part in the GTA elections are anti-Gorkha. All such forces should come together to protest the elections

Anil Lopchan, GJM Spokesperson

The demand for the inclusion of the mouzas is interesting because the GJM finds itself in a tough spot when it comes to electoral significance in the hills, or the lack thereof. With Tamang and Thapa leaving, a significant chunk of the GJM cadre shifted base too. The only ones who are left are Gurung’s supporters. Meanwhile the newly formed Hamro Party by Ajoy Edwards, swept the Darjeeling Municipality polls in 2022.

Including the Mouzas will give the GJM a better chance of fighting in the elections.

BJP-GNLF

The only other party / alliance which is against the elections is the Bharatiya Janata Party and its alliance with the Gorkha National Liberation Front.

Former Union Minister Jaswant Singh

(Photo: File image)

The BJP had first won a seat in the hills in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Jaswant Singh had won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat with GJM’s support, when the party had negligible presence in the state. They won again in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP find themselves in a similar spot as the GJM when it comes to electoral significance in the hills. While the GNLF has been opposing the GTA since its inception, the BJP too has opposed the elections this time around.

The GTA was rejected by the people of Darjeeling Hills, Terai, and the Dooars region in 2017 itself. There is no point holding an election

Raju Bista, BJP MP

Both parties so far have said that they will not participate in the elections. However, the GNLF has said that ‘they will not allow goals to be scored in an empty goal post.’

They have even filed a writ petition before the Calcutta High Court, based on the 2012 write petition filed by them challenging the validity of the GTA.

The GTA election cannot resolve the issues of Darjeeling Hills. A three-tier panchayat poll can solve some issues. We are contemplating moving the court against this decision to hold the GTA election. When a final decision is taken, we will let you know.

Sukanta Majumdar, BJP State President

The GNLF has in fact detailed a three-phase plan for the elections. The first phase is the Centre’s intervention to stall the elections, the second being legal recourse. The final option is to contest the election with ‘like-minded parties’ and resign from the body immediately if they win.

Hamro Party

A part of the reason behind the potential boycotting of elections by the GJM, BJP and GNLF can be attributed to the rise of Ajoy Edwards and the newly formed Hamro party. Edwards is a former GNLF leader who split from the party to form his own, and in their first election bagged 18 of 32 seats in the Darjeeling municipal elections.

The Hamro party is in favour of the GTA elections.

Trinamool Congress

No points for guessing which side of the debate the Trinamool Congress is on, and it has seen some support for its move from other outfits including the Hamro party, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, the Jana Andolan Party, and the Bharatiya Gorkha, who are all in favour of the GTA elections.

The GTA election will give a level playing field to Hills outfits and a chance for people to choose their own representatives. It is a step towards restoring the democratic process. But some parties such as the BJP and the others are trying to stall the process, fearing defeat. The democratic process must continue amidst this opposition

Kunal Ghosh, TMC Spokesperson

The TMC however, do find themselves in a tricky spot as they are contesting the elections without any alliance. The GJM have opposed the elections, while seat-sharing talks failed with the newly formed Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha led by Anit Thapa.

But the TMC had built significant inroads in the hills, after years of trying, by capitalizing on the rift between the two factions of the GJM. Now they have a significant hold over the hills, and Binoy Tamang joining the TMC, bolsters their chances.

They haven’t announced candidates or the number of seats in which they will contest, at the time of writing this article.

Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha

In democratic set up elections are important. As a responsible political party, we will take part in the elections

Amar Lama, General Secretary, BGPM

The BGPM was in favour of the elections, to the point where there were seat sharing talks between them and the TMC. It was supposed to be a 35-10 split, but then Thapa announced candidates in all 45 seats after many of the party leaders threatened to contest independently if they gave TMC 10 seats.

However, despite going alone, many of the party leaders and cadre are not happy with the choice of candidates who were announced for the first phase of the elections (four in Kalimpong and Darjeeling each and three in Kurseong).

The party had contested the Darjeeling municipality elections independently.

Citizen Groups

Citizen groups have mostly been against the GTA elections and have been actively campaigning in the hills to raise awarness and build support against the elections.

The newly formed Bharatiya Gorkha Suraksha Parishad garlanded an effigy of Home Minister Amit Shah with slippers and shoes and demanded an explanation to the proposed ‘permanent political solution’.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh opposed the elections and demanded a separate state.

Both the central government and the state government see such bodies as replacement for or alternatives to a separate state. But such local administrative set-ups do not meet the democratic aspirations of the Gorkhas of India. The rejection of these bodies by the people of the Darjeeling region time after time only reflects the non-dependence of India’s Gorkhas on such bodies to deliver their longstanding demand for a rightful place in the country’s mainstream.

Munish Tamang, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh

All in all, the stage is set for a high stakes election in the hills (if it happens), and one that might set the tone for the demand of a separate state.