Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s (GJM) founder-president Bimal Gurung held his first public assembly in Bengal’s Darjeeling city on Sunday afternoon and introduced that he’ll assist the Trinamool Congress (TMC) win at the very least 18 meeting seats in north Bengal when elections in the state are held subsequent yr.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gained the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat thrice since 2009 with help from the GJM and different events demanding creation of a separate state because it promised to discover a everlasting political answer to the hill subject and accord scheduled tribe standing to 11 Gorkha communities.

“I have joined hands with chief minister Mamata Barerjee. We will win 17 to 18 assembly seats in north Bengal. The BJP betrayed the Gorkhas and wasted our 12 years,” Gurung mentioned on the assembly. He mentioned (*18*) has assured him that she’s going to discover a everlasting political answer to the Gorkhaland subject.

There are six meeting seats in the Darjeeling hills, of which the TMC holds one whereas the BJP has none. The CPI(M) has one seat, the GJM has two whereas the remaining two are in management of the Congress. The Gorkha group has presence in the adjoining districts in the plains as nicely. The two GJM legislators from Darjeeling provided help to the BJP after the 2016 meeting polls however Gurung has now withdrawn his help.

Gurung went into hiding in 2017 after being charged below anti-terror regulation by the Mamata (*18*) authorities for the violent Gorkhaland motion. He appeared earlier than the media in Kolkata in October and introduced that he was shifting his allegiance to (*18*).

Since then, the rivalry between Gurung and Binoy Tamang, his former lieutenant who has been heading a pro-TMC faction of the GJM since 2017, has intensified.

Though Tamang and his males are against Gurung’s entry into Darjeeling, the erstwhile fugitive chief was acquired with a heat welcome on Sunday. Gurung informed his followers that he’ll begin calling the photographs in hill politics very quickly.

Without immediately naming Tamang and his affiliate Anit Thapa, chairman of the board of directors in Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), Gurung mentioned, “They cannot deliver anything despite all the support they have.”

Since the TMC didn’t wrest the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat from the BJP in 2019 regardless of having the help of Tamang and Thapa, Gurung focused the duo.

“Why should they be supported (by the TMC)?” he mentioned.

“The two must leave within 10 to 12 days,” Gurung mentioned. Local folks mentioned Gurung hinted that he desires Tamang and Thapa to step down from the GTA.

Gurung returned to Siliguri city on December 6 and addressed a rally.

He was ready for the precise time to go to Darjeeling.

Political equations in the Darjeeling hills all of the sudden modified after Gurung pledged help to the TMC.

“The BJP should be defeated at any cost and I will ensure that keeping the chief minister in front of us,” Gurung mentioned on Sunday.