West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee further consolidated her ties with the GJM by inviting it for Martyrs’ Day rally on July 21. The GJM has accepted her invitation. “Yes Mamataji invited us for the Trinamul Congress’ July 21 rally and we have promised her that we will attend it,” GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said on Friday evening. Ms Banerjee extended the invitation during her meeting with GJM president Bimal Gurung in Kalimpong.
Earlier, she addressed a gathering at the Town Hall and paid tributes to noted Nepali poet Bhanubhakta Acharya on his 198th birthday. Mr Giri and party MLA and spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri were present on the stage. As a goodwill gesture, she also visited the house of Mr Chhetri.
To dispel any misgivings, Ms Banerjee said that she had not gone there to do politics. “I did not even campaign for my party,” she added. In the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) elections, the Trinamul Congress has fielded candidates in 17 seats which was resented by Mr Gurung. She later met the GJM president to keep him in good humour. Sources said that Ms Banerjee assured him that she had no intention of disturbing GJM hegemony in the hills. “We have always maintained that Trinamul Congress and GJM have a tacit pact in the Hills. Today, it became apparent. The Trinamul Congress contesting GTA polls is a sham” said CPI(M) spokesperson Mohammed Salim.
In an apparent bid to win the hearts and minds of the Nepali people, Ms Banerjee announced that the state government will celebrate Bhanubhakta Acharya’s bicentenary with great fanfare.
“His bicentenary is due in 2014. Just as the 150th birthday celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore began a year before the event, the celebrations of Bhanubhakta’s bicentenary will begin from next year,” she added.
During her speech at the Town Hall, she said that for development in Darjeeling hills, enduring peace was necessary.