Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slams Mamata Banerjee for getting support of GJM''s Bimal Gurung

By Team Newsable | First Published Dec 7, 2020, 1:06 PM IST

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday (December 60 alleged that the Trinamool Congress has chosen "suicidal politics" by securing the support of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Bimal Gurung.

Chowdhury expressed dismay over Gurung allegedly getting police escort during his road journey from near Malda to Siliguri for attending a rally there on Sunday, and said that Mamata Banerjee is "jettisoning the interest" of the country for getting votes.

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Gurung, who was going to Siliguri by train, left it and went there by road as an Adivasi organisation put up a rail blockade to press for their demands.

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The West Bengal government has slapped around 100 cases including those under the UAPA against Gurung for alleged acts of arson and attacks on policemen in Darjeeling hills during the GJM''s movement for separate Gorkhaland state in the past few years.

Chowdhury asked, “Will you (Banerjee) have an electoral understanding with Dawood Ibrahim or Al Qaida for winning polls? Have you forgotten the death of police officer Amitava Malik?”

Malik, a sub-inspector, was killed when a group of alleged GJM activists fired at a police team in a forest near Darjeeling in October 2017. The police were on the trail of Gurung who was suspected to be hiding there.

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Gurung, who had been in hiding for three years, resurfaced in Kolkata on October 21 and pledged support to the TMC, after having quit the NDA, claiming that the BJP has "failed to find a permanent solution" for the Hills which had witnessed major unrest over demand for a separate state.

Darjeeling hills had repeatedly witnessed violent agitation over the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. In 2017, the hills saw a 104-day-long strike called by Gurung over the issue.

Although the GJM faction led by Gurung had continued to align with the BJP, the other camp, headed by Tamang, joined hands with the ruling TMC in the state.

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