GJM to focus on demand for separate state in Assembly poll

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Kolkata, Mar 25 :The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has spearheaded the Gorkhaland agitation in the Darjeeling hills, has decided to focus on its demand for a separate state in the coming West Bengal Assembly election.
Tilak Dewan, GJM central committee member, and two other central committee members Harkabahadur Chetri and Rohit Sharma would contest from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong constituencies respectively, GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri told PTI from Darjeeling.
Giri said the GJM would also contest in Kalchini and Madarihat constituencies while it would back a Progressive People''s Party candidate at the Nagarakata seat. These three constituencies are situated in the Jalpaiguri district of north Bengal.
He said Wilson Champamari would seek re-election from Kalchini seat while the party would put up an adivasi candidate at Madarihat.
"What will be the party''s strategy in Malbazar, Matigara, Alipurduar, Siliguri and Dabgram-Phulbari constituencies in north Bengal where we have a support base will be clarified after two days from now," he said.
Without elaborating, state BJP president Rahul Sinha told PTI that his party was in talks with the GJM for a poll tie-up.
Chetri, a key GJM leader, said, "We want to voice our demand for Gorkhaland inside the Assembly and that is why we are participating in the election," he said.
The proposed interim set-up for the Darjeeling hills is a ''closed chapter now'' and a Gorkhaland is their only demand now, he added.
Panchayat elections in the hills have not been held since 2005 because of the whims of the parties holding sway in the region at that time � first the Gorkha Liberation Front and then the GJM.
The hill municipalities, too, are being run by a board of administrators from 2009 when GJM refused to contest the elections and nobody filed any nomination. .