'Bloodbath if Gorkhaland not formed'

A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of a dais shared by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) supremo Bimal Gurung, the latter called for an intensified movement warning the Centre and the state of violence and bloodbath if their demand was not considered.

“So long we have been running our movement peacefully but we will not sit quiet until we have our Gorkhaland. I cannot say anything. If there be riots, violence and bloodbath, we are ready for it. But we will not sell our conscience,” Gurng said after inaugurating the Bijonbari Bridge on Wednesday.

“What will they do? Get the police to fire on us? If that be, we are ready to die. We will hold a rally at Sukna on March 10 where the party would decide its next political course of action in demand for a separate Gorkhaland,” Gurung said.

Incidentally, Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the bridge on Tuesday from Darjeeling town but the Morcha leadership alleged that they have not been intimated and directed people not to ply over the bridge and it was again inaugurated by Gurung on Wednesday.

“We have lost all faith in the chief minister, especially after what happened yesterday (Tuesday). She is trying to create a division between the Gorkha and Lepcha communities. If our demand for a separate Gorkhaland is not met, things can turn worse for which the state and the central governments will be responsible,” GJM leader Vinay Tamang said.

The relation between Morcha leadership and Mamata Banerjee turned sour after the chief minister walked out of the stage in the midst of a function where Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters raised slogans and displayed posters demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland at Darjeeling on Tuesday.

In a separate development, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan told media persons at Gandhi Ghat in Barrackpore, “(Hill) Problems are being solved. Problems are still to be solved”.

Narayanan’s statement comes at a moment when Mamata Banerjee has been telling that problem in the hills has been solved.

On July 18 last year, a tripartite agreement was signed between the GJM, the state and the central governments for setting up a new autonomous, elected GTA, a hill council armed with more powers than its predecessor the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council formed in the late 1980s. The GJM now runs the GTA with Bimal Gurung as its chief, after sweeping its maiden elections last July.