The leader of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha-1, Bimal Gurung, today maintained that no discussions on former Morcha-2 leader Binoy Tamang’s possibilities of joining his camp were held in their meeting yesterday.

“He wanted to meet me and I obliged. As a guardian of the hills, anyone can come and meet me. We did not discuss anything political but talked about the present scenario. With the Covid pandemic affecting everyone, we should
all work together for the benefit of the people in the Hills, Dooars and the Terai,” said Bimal Gurung, adding that there had been misunderstandings earlier, but that Binoy Tamang had regretted it for that.

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Gurung, however, said the two leaders would not be seen in one platform in the coming days, but added that “in politics, anything can happen.” While the meeting yesterday had sparked speculations in the hills about whether Binoy would rejoin the Gurung camp, the meeting itself was the first time that both the leaders met one-on-one after the resignation of Mr Tamang on 15 June this year from his post as the president of the GJMM-2 faction. He left the party, citing reasons of “ongoing conspiracy” towards his removal from politics.

Mr Tamang, along with GJMM-2 leader Anit Thapa, had split from the original GJMM led by Bimal Gurung in 2017 after the Gorkhaland agitation in the Hills. With both the factions at loggerheads earlier, both the leaders were seen showing a soft corner towards each other when Binoy shed tears as he announced his resignation and his decision to return the flag of the party to Mr Gurung. A similar sight was seen when Gurung received the flag from supporters of Tamang later.

On the other hand, the GJMM-2 came down heavily on the meeting between the two leaders, maintaining that Tamang had given up his ideology for his personal gains.

The GJMM-2 Darjeeling sub-division president, Alok Kanta Mani Thulung, said, “We were surprised and sad with the development as when he (Tamang) was our party president, he had made statements against Gurung and said that they would not share any political or administrative platform with him and that Gurung was irrelevant.”

“Now him going and meeting Gurung shows that he had given up his ideology for personal benefits. We, on the other hand, will not compromise like this,” said  Thulung, adding that the Morcha-2 would benefit if both Bimal and Binoy decided to work together.