Darjeeling, June 30 (IBNS) The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has announced to fight the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) polls in Darjeeling which they had threatened to boycott earlier over the Justice Sen committee recommendations on territorial inclusion which they rejected.
The decision to contest the polls was communicated by GJM leaders on Saturday after the meeting of their core committee.
GJM will contest all the 45 seats and go alone in the polls, said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, a senior GJM leader.
The GJM core committee members have also urged Bimal Gurung to fight the polls. Gurung said he would take a decision on that later.
Earlier on June 16, a new three-member fact verification committee to scrutinize the findings of the Justice Shymal Sen committee report on inclusion of new areas from the Terai and Dooars in the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) was announced after the GJM leaders met Mamata Banerjee to protest against the panel's recommendations granting them only five mouzas under the GTA against the demand for 396.
The GJM had announced a series of agitations, including resignations of their MLAs, to protest the report of the Justice Sen panel.
The Mamata Banerjee government assured to the GTA that more areas from the Terai, Dooars and plains would be added to the existing GTA.
Darjeeling, the queen of Hills, witnessed some fresh turmoil with the GJM rejecting rejecting outright the recommendations of the committee headed by the retired judge that allocated only five mouzas to the GTA.
The GTA was formed in July last year replacing the previous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGCH).
GJM had threatened to burn the copies of the GTA agreement signed on July 18, 2011, but later cancelled their agitation.
