Kalimpong MLA floats party, says open to alliance with TMC

The former GJM leader said they would continue to demand for a separate state, but with the central government. “We will not create a ruckus about everything, like the GJM. We will do things according to the Constitution,” he said.

The new party would also look at other issues of the region such as regularisation of teachers’ service and reopening of closed tea gardens, the MLA said.

While Chhetri will be the president of the Jan Andolan Party, Mahendra P Lama will be the chairman and Anmol Prasad the secretary. There are seven persons in the central committee of the party.

Asked about whether the new party is open to forming alliances, Chhetri told The Indian Express they were ready to discuss possibilities of alliances with all anti-GJM parties, adding that he understands it is futile to pick up a fight with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “When you go to the Assembly as an MLA, your high command is the state government. Until you are in a good relationship with the state government, how can you get your demands met for the people who you are answerable to?” he asked.

Meanwhile, GJM leaders alleged that Chhetri’s new party had nothing new to offer and it was put up to make Mamata’s hold stronger in the Hills. “There can be more such parties but it will have no effect on the GJM support base because it has the people’s mandate. The manifesto of this new party has been borrowed from the GJM itself. Those who were present there today were members of the Lepcha Board, the Tamang Board and other such boards which had been put up by Mamata,” said Binay Tamang, assistant secretary, GJM.

Tamang added that Chhetri was a person without any principles or ideologies. “He didn’t even mention Gorkhaland once today, an issue which should be at the top of the party’s priority list,” he said.

GJM is scheduled to hold a meeting on Thursday, where it is likely to attack Chhetri’s new party.