GJM (Bimal) and BJP announce candidates for three Hill seats

DARJEELING: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Bimal) announced candidates for the Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong seats on Tuesday and released the party's election manifesto.

In a party programme at Malidhura on the fringes of Darjeeling town, Bimal Gurung, president, GJM announced the names of PT Ola as the candidate for Darjeeling; Norbu G Lama for Kurseong and Ram Bahadur Bhujel for Kalimpong.

While Ola, a lawyer by profession is the former Chairman of the Darjeeling Municipality, Lama and Bhujel are former GTA members (Sabhasad.)

"We will definitely win all three seats. There is no threat from the BJP. They have not been able to field their own candidate also. The Kurseong and Kalimpong candidates of BJP have been taken from our party. What type of a national party is the BJP? They are always busy hijacking leaders from other parties," remarked Gurung.

Gurung gave a clarion call to the Hills to oust BJP from the Hills. "In the past we had ensured the victory of 3 BJP MPs along with the Darjeeling BJP MLA during by-election in 2019. However the BJP just used us. Time has come to give pay them back through this ballot," retorted Gurung. Incidentally GJM (Bimal) has left the BJP folds and has forged an alliance with the Trinamool Congress. BJP also announced it candidates on Tuesday morning. From Darjeeling the BJP has fielded Neeraj Tamang Zimba; from Kurseong Bishnu Prasad Sharma (BP Bajgain;) and Subha Pradhan from Kalimpong. Both Pradhan and Bajgain had recently crossed over to the BJP from GJM (Bimal.) Zimba is the sitting MLA who is from the GNLF but had won the Assembly by-elections from Darjeeling in 2019 on a BJP ticket.