Kolkata, Aug 4 On the last day of the West Bengal Assembly's monsoon session, BJP MLA from Kurseong constituency Bishnu Prasad Sharma on Friday raised his voice in favour of a separate Gorkhaland state.
As the session commenced for the day, Sharma started raising slogans in support of the separate state proposed to be carved out of the hill areas in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong and part of the plains in Terai and Dooars regions in North Bengal.
At one point, he even sat on the floor of the Assembly premises and continued with his slogans.
Addressing reporters, the MLA said: “In New Delhi, several organisations are staging protest demonstrations daily on this issue. A resident in the hills has also given a letter to the District Magistrate of Darjeeling for permission to go for a fast-unto-death agitation. In such a situation I cannot remain aloof from the issue and hence I have decided to stand by it."
Sharma had recently voiced his discontent against the BJP's state leadership for the disaster in the hill results in the recently-concluded panchayat polls.
Without naming anyone, he had indirectly blamed BJP Lok Sabha member from Darjeeling constituency Raju Singh Bista for the poor results of his party and its allies.
He even called Bista an “outsider” in the hills. “
The poor results of the party and its allies in the hills in the recent rural civic body polls are because of the false promises made by a section of the outsiders who had been dumped on the people of the hills. Their false promises have maligned the image of the party among the people of the hills. Precisely, that is why I was reluctant to participate in the rural civic body polls,” he said last month.
The MLA also claimed that there had not been enough initiative by the central’s leadership about the permanent political solution in the hills.
“A permanent political solution in the hills was the principal promise of our party in the successive elections. That promise is yet to be fulfilled. Mere promises will not work out as those promises need to be fulfilled."
--IANS
src/ksk
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor