By IANS,
Darjeeling : Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh Thursday said that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s (GJM) decision to support the Trinamool Congress in many constituencies in the West Bengal assembly polls will not affect its alliance with the BJP.
Singh, who is campaigning for the GJM across Darjeeling in the run-up to the first phase of the elections April 18, said: “Supporting the Trinamool Congress is a political decision of the GJM. It will not affect our alliance with it.”
On the GJM’s demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, Singh said: “It’s the call of the times.”
He also said the only way forward was through tripartite discussions and after the assembly polls are over, the talks will resume.
Several rounds of talks between the central government, the state government and the GJM have been held to resolve the GJM’s demand for a separate Gorkhaland state out of the northern parts of West Bengal.
The GJM, which is spearheading the Gorkhaland agitation for the last three years after sidelining the once prominent Gorkha National Liberation Front, supported Singh in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
However, for the coming assembly elections, the GJM has sided with the BJP in only the Madarihat constituency of Jalpaiguri district, while supporting the Trinamool-Congress combine in a dozen North Bengal constituencies.