No GTA poll until area addition: Gurung

No GTA poll until area addition: Gurung

manas ranjan banerjee
PINTAIL VILLAGE  (SUKNA)/KOLKATA, 19 JULY: In an apparent move to put pressure on the Mamata Banerjee government, the GJMM president, Mr Bimal Gurung, today made it clear that there would be no Gorkhaland Territorial Administration election until some Gorkha-majority areas in the Terai-Dooars region are included in the autonomous council. 
Addressing a GJMM's rally at Pintail Village, Mr Gurung said that his party would go for the GTA election after making sure that the additional areas in the Treai-Dooars are included in the council's territorial jurisdiction. “Make no mistake that we would not allow elections until our demand is met,” he said, amidst thunderous applause from GJMM followers who have assembled in thousands to listen to the leader after the signing-ceremony involving the GTA that was held yesterday. 
The well-timed move is likely to upset the state government, as the chief minister looks euphoric, claiming that the long lingering impasse has been resolved within less than three months since the new government assumed the reins of the state. 
“An impression is being deliberately created that the GTA would comprise only the three Hill sub-divisions. This is mischievous propaganda. The GTA is by no means an exclusive Gorkha body. It is rather an inclusive instrument involving the interests of all the backward communities in north Bengal like the Adivasis, Mech, Rava and the like. We agreed to the proposed set up after ensuring that the state government would constitute a high-powered committee to look into our territorial expansion demand. There is no question of going back at this critical juncture,” he said.
Alluding to Mamata Banerjee's categorical rejection of the Gorkhaland demand during yesterday's signing ceremony, Mr Gurung said that she had been under tremendous pressure from the parochial elements within her community. “She would have given us the statehood had the matter been left exclusively to herself. We know that a section of our workers are upset with the chief minister's anti-Gorkhaland affirmation. She deserves our support and sympathy in view of her predicament. The chauvinistic elements have already started crying wolf,” the GJMM president said.
Reiterating that the statehood demand is very much on their agenda, he said that they would keep begging for it from the chief minister whom he addressed as ‘mother.
The chief secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh, however, said: “The agreement says that the election to GTA would be held on the basis of the existing territorial jurisdiction of the present Darjeeling Gorkha Autonomous Hill Council. The question of territorial expansion of GTA is not linked with the holding of elections.”