Raju Bista faces tough challenge within BJP in Darjeeling
Breaking the BJP’s tradition in Darjeeling, sitting MP Raju Bista has won the first round as his name was announced by the party as a candidate from Darjeeling LS constituency.
Newly-elected MLA from Kalimpong, Ruden Sada Lepcha’s statement that he would first give priority to development work at places where he had won during the Assembly elections has received flak from leaders of various political parties in the Hills.
In an interview he gave to a local channel yesterday, Mr Lepcha said that he had talked to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and also appealed to Executive Engineers to halt tenders right now for various work, as development work would first be done for around two years only in booths and constituencies, which voted for him.
Strongly criticizing his statement, Darjeeling’s Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Chettri said, “I appeal to all the three MLAs who have won in the Hills to work for the people, irrespective of the party they belong to. I especially want to tell Mr Lepcha that he is not the MLA of only the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (Binoy Tamang camp), but of the entire Kalimpong area and its people. He is making such statements before even taking his oath of office, and I condemn this. I appeal to him to withdraw his statement and do no such thing in the future.”
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The Morcha’s Tamang camp is an alliance partner of the TMC and will be supporting the ruling party in the Assembly. Speaking on the same lines, GNLF leader from Kalimpong Lobsang Lama said, “It is a sad thing that Mr Lepcha made such a statement. Is this part of their new thought? He should work for all the people and not differentiate between anyone.”
Morcha (Bimal Gurung camp) leader from Kalimpong Anil Lopchan also said they condemned the statement made by Mr Lepcha. “He is the people’s representative of Kalimpong and should work for the development of the entire area,” he said.
Mr Lepcha won the Assembly elections by securing 58,206 votes in total, while he defeated his nearest rival and BJP candidate, Suva Pradhan by a margin of around 3,870 votes. Mr Pradhan managed to bag54,336 votes, while Morcha (Gurung camp) candidate RB Bhujel managed only 31856 votes.
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