GJMM, KPP split over Dooars

Statesman News Service

MALDA, April 9: A Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha ally, the Kamtapur People's Party in its poll campaign in North Malda is opposing the GJMM's stipulation to include the Dooars and other plain areas of north Bengal in the separate statehood demand. The reason is clear ~ the GJMM demand clashes with the KPP's call for a separate Kamtapur state to be carved out of the six districts of north Bengal and parts of Assam.

“Ethically we can extend support to the GJMM if it restricts its demand to the Darjeeling hills. But we would not give up an inch of land in the Dooars and plains areas of Darjeeling district. We will launch a ‘do or die’ movement if the Centre or the state agrees to give GJMM land from the Dooars,” the KPP general secretary Mr Subhash Barman said today.

Speaking during campaigning, Mr Barman outlined that the GNLF leader Mr Subash Ghisingh operated the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council from ‘Lalkothi,’ which had been built by the Cooch Behar king Hitendra Narayan. The GJMM cannot claim the region as its own land. It is impractical, Mr Barman added.

The KPP has nominated candidates in North and South Malda constituencies. While Mr Atul Mandal would contest from North Malda, Mr Rustam Ali is the KPP's candidate from South Malda.

Although not much of a threat to the big two the Congress and the CPI-M, the KPP has, however, registered a growth in its vote bank percentage in Malda district. In the last Lok Sabha election, Mr Atul Mandal contested from Malda and secured nearly 12,500 votes. It got 21,500 votes in the by-election after the demise of A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury.

“The North Malda seat was created after delimitation. The seat includes Gazol, Habibpur and Old Malda Assembly segments, which gives us hope that the vote percentage for KPP would increase this year,” Mr Barman claimed.

Demanding recognition of Kamtapuri language, the KPP leaders criticised both the Centre and the state for neglecting north Bengal and for the lack of basic amenities for the backward classes in the region.