Saying that the ‘honeymoon’ between the GJM and the West Bengal government was over, Opposition leader Surya Kanta Mishra today observed that the ‘opportunist’ Trinamool Congress’ hurry in forging a pact with the hill party had created a problem. “The honeymoon between the Trinamool Congress-led state government and the GJM is over. The treaty was signed in a hurry by an opportunist state government. It only created a problem. At the very outset we had opposed it. We had demanded an all-party meeting, but that was turned down by the government,” Mishra said. He charged that the government itself had incorporated the word Gorkhaland and also the provisions to extend their territory to Dooars and Terai in the text of the treaty. “We had opposed then only,” said Mishra. Mishra’s comments came a day after Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha workers yesterday raised the demand for Gorkhaland at a government programme in Darjeeling in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who firmly ruled it out, warning that she could be both ‘rough and tough’. “It was totally opposite to what we wanted. Before the 2011 Assembly elections, TMC had forged alliance with GJM, Kamtapuri and the Maoists. Now the results are coming out of such an alliance,” Mishra said. Mishra suggested that the government should act in a more responsible way and should not try to bypass the elected GTA. State Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said that it was not correct to say that Darjeeling problem had been resolved as the fire was still burning. PTI
