Kolkata: Ahead of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) election scheduled early next year, former Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) MLAs Binay Tamang and Rohit Sharma joined Trinamool Congress on Friday.
“Mamata Banerjee is a dynamic leader and we have always supported her. TMC is a national party and I was always in touch with TMC. The main opponent in the hills is BJP and its alliance. A change is needed in 2024 and Mamata didi is a perfect PM candidate,” claimed Tamang.
“Abhishek Banerjee is also a dynamic leader and with the vision of Mamata didi and Abhishek there will be development in the hills and just to beautify the hills more I have joined TMC. BJP said they support Gorkhaland but didn’t do anything,” further claimed Tamang.
Notably, the post-2019 Lok Sabha election North Bengal has been painted saffron after a sizable seats were won by the BJP. In the recent past, BJP MP John Barla had also demanded separate statehood of North Bengal alleging that the TMC didn’t do anything to develop North Bengal including Darjeeling. On December 6, BJP Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma had also written a letter to BJP national president JP Nadda demanding separate statehood of North Bengal.
Incidentally, Tamang in 2017 had broken the Bimal Gurung-led GJM.
State Education Minister Bratya Basu who was present during the joining claimed that BJP believes in ‘communal’ and ‘divisive’ politics for which they are losing support.
“BJP is gradually losing their support for their divisive politics. Only TMC can break the communal politics of the saffron camp. The BJP lies that they have developed the hills but the actual development is done by the TMC in the entire state,” mentioned Bratya.
