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Once a TMC ally, Darjeeling Gorkha leader to launch new political party
In 2019, the state government made Thapa the chairman of the board of administrators of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), a semi-autonomous development body, after Tamang stepped down from the post to contest the assembly by-election in Darjeeling. He lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Anit Thapa, a former general secretary of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which is an ally of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), said on Friday that he will launch a new political party in Darjeeling next month.
“I will make the announcement on September 9. Many intellectuals and literary personalities will join it,” said Thapa who, along with his associates, sided with the TMC government in 2017 when it cracked down on the Gorkhaland movement, forcing GJM founder Bimal Gurung to go underground.
Gurung resurfaced in 2020 and offered to support Mamata Banerjee in the assembly polls held in March-April this year. Since 2017, Thapa was the general secretary of the GJM faction that was headed by Binoy Tamang, Gurung’s lieutenant-turned-rival.
On July 15, Tamang resigned and handed over the party’s flag to Gurung. He has held meetings with Gurung as well.
“I offer my best wishes to Thapa. I hope his party will be corruption-free,” Tamang said on Friday.
In 2019, the state government made Thapa the chairman of the board of administrators of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), a semi-autonomous development body, after Tamang stepped down from the post to contest the assembly by-election in Darjeeling. He lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Thapa was removed from the GTA before the recent assembly polls and since then the autonomous body is being run by a senior bureaucrat.
Since 1986, Darjeeling and Kalimpong have witnessed four movements in support of the demand for Gorkhaland, a separate state for Gorkhas. The regional parties are now divided. Some have forged an alliance with the BJP while the rest support the TMC.
