Lok Sabha polls: BJP promises to consider Gorkhaland issue

NEW DELHI: BJP today promised to sympathetically examine and consider the pending demands of Gorkhas, including that of Gorkhaland, besides finding a permanent solution to the issues of Bodos in Assam.

"BJP will seriously consider the Gorkhaland issue as well as their other demands," BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here.

BJP added in its manifesto issues pertaining to Gorkhas, Bodos, Adivasis and other people of Darjeeling, besides taking initiatives for permanent solution to long pending issues of Bodos and other tribals of Assam, the people of Sikkim, Leh, Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep and other such neglected regions.

"BJP reiterates that it will sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long pending demands of the Gorkhas, the Adivasis and other people of Darjeeling district and the Dooars region; of the Kamtapuri, Rajbongshi and other people of North Bengal (including recognition of their language)

"and will take initiatives for the permanent solution of the long pending issues of the Bodos and other tribals of Assam, the people of Sikkim, Leh, Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep and other such neglected regions," the addition to the BJP manifesto said.

BJP has fielded its senior leader S S Ahluwalia from Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) spearheading the movement for a separate Gorkhaland state, supporting the BJP in this election.

Sources said the party had made a similar promise in the last election also when senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh contested the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat.