Trinamool Congress leader Suk Bahadur Subba joins Gorkha Janmukti Morcha with followers

DARJEELING: Former Trinamool Congress leader Suk Bahadur Subba today joined the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha along with 50 of his supporters at Kalimpong in Darjeeling Hills.

The Morcha said Trinamool supporters in the hills had started joining GJM after realising that the primary political demand of the hill people, which is the creation of Gorkhaland, would remain unfilled by TMC.

Morcha General Secretary Roshan Giri said "Suk Bahadur Subba, a Trinamool Congress candidate in the GTA elections from Algara-Dalapchand, today joined the GJM."

The 49-year-old Subba, a small-time farmer from Algara in Kalimpong, was previously with the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front (UGRF), which is at the moment politically inactive.

Morcha President Bimal Gurung handed over the party flag to Subba and his supporters in Darjeeling.

Subba said he had joined the Morcha because the cause of the Gorkha people was paramount to him and he believed the Morcha, and not Trinamool, would remain true to the community.

"I had joined the Trinamool about a year back in the hope it would take up the cause of our people, but that has not happened. I told Bimal daju in Darjeeling I am in politics only to espouse the cause of our people. Otherwise, I am happy being a poor farmer," he said.
Subba had filed nomination against Morcha candidate Kalpana Tamang in the GTA polls held on July 29, 2012. However, Mamata Banerjee instructed Subba and 16 other Trinamool candidates to "politically withdraw" from the elections as the party shared a healthy relation with the Morcha then.

The new entrant to the Morcha also said he was made to feel unwanted in Trinamul by the party's hills convener Rajen Mukhia.

"Maybe, it was because of our different background. Mukhia used to be with the GNLF, while I was with the UGRF. He probably didn't feel comfortable with me."

Giri said many Morcha supporters who had left the party for Trinamool had slowly started returning to the party.

"Just a few days ago, 13 Morcha supporters who had joined Trinamool returned to our party after holding a meeting with our area's (Mungpoo) GTA Sabha member, Ratan Thapa," said Giri.