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Marked by fresh political alignments, the elections in Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in 2024 has emerged as one of the most interesting electoral contests in West Bengal. While the politics of Darjeeling hills for the past several decades has been centered around the Gorkha identity and demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, the issue seems to have taken a …

Urban Agenda: Hill states move to check unregulated urban development in high tourist footfall areas (finally)

Pro-Gorkhaland units in the Darjeeling Hills, including the GJM and the Hamro Party, have indicated that a fresh movement will be launched to press for separate statehood ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Darjeeling has witnessed several agitations over the years, with political parties promising people a separate Gorkhaland state and the implementation of the Sixth Schedule, which grants …

Hills

Published : Jul 10, 2022 18:00 IST The long-awaited election to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the regional autonomous administrative body in the Darjeeling hills of north Bengal, has been a significant victory in more ways than one for the ruling Trinamool Congress. Not only did its “political friend”, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, win 26 of the 45 GTA seats, …

GTA polls in Darjeeling hills to be held after 10 years

Elections for the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in West Bengal’s Darjeeling hills are scheduled to be held on Sunday after a gap of 10 years, even as a section of the political parties have boycotted the polls. Elections for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in West Bengal’s Darjeeling hills are scheduled to be held on Sunday after a gap of 10 …

The West Bengal government has decided to hold election for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, an autonomous body to administer Darjeeling, in June this year Kolkata: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supremo Bimal Gurung has requested West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to defer the GTA poll until the memorandum of proposals submitted by the party is implemented in the hills. The West …

In the season of defections leading up to the elections, the TMC's only star acquisition from the BJP’s side was Bimal Gurung. Gurung is a senior leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, a Hills party that has aggressively pressed for the demand of Gorkhaland – a separate state for the Gorkha community. While underground, Gurung, a mass leader in the …

Like the steep and narrow roads leading to Darjeeling, politics in these hills of West Bengal is marked by twists and turns. In his absence, the State government gave control of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a regional autonomous body to Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa who remained the Trinamool’s electoral ally but were against Mr. Gurung. They use a phrase …

Identity as Indian citizens and the fundamental right of the Gorkhas to represent themselves is at the heart of the 2021 elections in the five key constituencies of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Matigara-Naxalbari and Phansidawa. The key to all elections in the hills, that is, in the three subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong since the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Accord was …

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday received a shot in the arm in the Darjeeling hills when some leaders of its former partner, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, joined the saffron camp. BJP had been looking for local support in the Darjeeling hills after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha switched allegiance to West Bengal's ruling party, TMC. The BJP which won the …

A twist in the politics of the Darjeeling hills

THE reconciliation between the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and Bimal Gurung, the erstwhile undisputed leader of the Darjeeling hills of north Bengal, has given a new twist to the volatile and unpredictable politics of the hills. In 2017, Gurung fled the Darjeeling hills after the Mamata Banerjee government slapped a number of criminal charges, including those under the …

Amid series of protests against GJM leader Bimal Gurung by his opposition camp in the Hills, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked Binoy Tamang for a talk at the state secretariat on November 3 in Kolkata. Mamata’s intervention came after the Hills had witnessed massive protests against Bimal Gurung ever since he extended his support to Mamata Banerjee …

Six months ahead of West Bengal state assembly elections, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has renewed its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state in the Darjeeling hills. A delegation of the GJM’s Bimal Gurung faction led by its working president Dr. Lopsang Yolmo Lama attended a meeting called by the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi on Wednesday. “When the …