Returning to the north Bengal hills after a break of seven months, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday named a road after Subhas Ghising – whose Gorkha National Liberation Front had led a violent movement for Gorkhaland for two decades since the late 1980s.
Banerjee rechristened the Rohini Road as Subhas Ghisingh Marg, saying the late GNLF supremo had played a significant part in ensuring the construction of the road.
Ghising’s party had lost its hold over the hills in 2008 with the advent of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and its leader Bimal Gurung. Since then, the GJM has been spearheading the movement.
Ghising was forced to leave the hills the same year and died in Delhi in 2015.
Gurung, on the other hand, has been on the run for months with cases under various laws including the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) slapped against him.
Banerjee, whose previous visit to Darjeeling was in June last year when she held her cabinet meeting there, was felicitated by GTA board of administrators chairman Binay Tamang during the day.
With Gurung’s grip weakening over the GJM, Tamang now leads a formidable faction of the party.