Gorkhaland Demand Takes Backseat As Factions Fight For Political Supremacy

Bimal Gurungs return from hiding after a span of three years and his fight with Binay Tamang for control over the region, however, has changed political equations.

With the two factions of the GJM one led by Bimal Gurung and the other by his former deputy Binay Tamang fighting for supremacy in the Darjeeling Hills, the imbroglio over Gorkhaland has taken a back seat this election, as key stakeholders pitch for development amid the COVID-19 crisis. Over the past three decades or more, the demand for a separate state of the Gorkhas and the implementation of the Constitution's sixth schedule which provides for the creation of autonomous councils in certain tribal areas had been the two major poll planks of Hill parties. Bimal Gurung's return from hiding after a span of three years and his fight with Binay Tamang for control over the region, however, has changed political equations. Add to that, the pandemic has crippled the tea and tourism sectors -- the financial backbone of the Hills -- and left many jobless, with voters in Darjeeling realising well that they need infrastructural development and employment opportunities more than anything else to stay afloat.