The Hindu : Ghisingh for tie-up with CPI (M)

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 22, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

Ghisingh for tie-up with CPI (M)

Marcus Dam

SILIGURI

On his first visit to this district since the Left Front announced its candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, urged leaders of the CPI (M) to step up campaigning for the party's nominee for the seat.

The highlight of Mr. Bhattacharjee's two-day visit here was a meeting with the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) supremo and Chairman of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hills Autonomous Council (DGHAC) Subash Ghisingh, in Darjeeling on Saturday evening — a meeting which has sparked speculation of a tacit electoral understanding between the two parties.

Mr. Bhattacharjee declined to comment on the talks, but Mr. Ghisingh, though evasive, did not rule out the possibility of an electoral pact. A final decision would be taken after consultations with leaders of his party's three branch committees of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong, he said.

Any support from the GNLF, which is the dominant party in the Darjeeling hills is expected to considerably boost the chances of the CPI (M)'s candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, Moni Thapa. The constituency stretches across the hills into parts of the plains of north Bengal.

Out of the seven Assembly segments comprising the constituency, three are in the Darjeeling hills, all of which are represented by MLAs belonging to the GNLF.

Bitter foes during the GNLF-led agitation for a separate State to be carved out of the hills in the mid-eighties, relations between the two parties began improving after the formation of the DGHAC in 1988.

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