Accusing the West Bengal Government of trying to suppress the Gorkhaland movement in the Darjeeling hills, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has sought the intervention of the Centre.
GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri has demanded for the Centre's intervention saying that the people in the hills wanted Gorkhaland. “It is their aspiration and the Centre has to intervene.”
He alleged that the State Government was mobilising forces in the hills to suppress the GJM movement for a separate state.
Earlier, GJM President Bimal Gurung had sought an appointment with Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, but he did not get it. A six-member GJM team had also recently gone to Delhi to meet the central leaders.
Asked whether they would talk to Governor M.K. Narayanan on the issue, he said that GJM could talk to the Governor, but insisted on Centre’s intervention.
Narayanan had said on August 15 that if Gurung wanted to talk to him then he was ready for it.
GJM spokesman Giri said that three MLAs of the party would sit in the Opposition in the Assembly as a mark of protest against the State Government’s attempt to suppress the party’s movement for a separate state.
“Our three MLAs will now sit in the Opposition Bench instead of the Treasury Bench,” Giri said, adding that the party has written to Speaker Biman Banerjee with regard to this.