GJM to support BJP in Darjeeling

Siliguri, April 4 (IANS) The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) Saturday said it would support Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Jaswant Singh for West Bengal's Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat as the party had promised to consider the Gorkhaland demand in its election manifesto.

'We've decided to support Jaswant Singh in the Lok Sabha polls, as the party has promised to sympathetically consider our demand for a separate Gorkhaland state in its election manifesto,' GJM central committee member Amar Lama told reporters.

He said it was for the first time that the Gorkhaland demand had found a place in the election manifesto of a national political party.

Lama said that Jaswant Singh would come to Darjeeling next week and he would file his nomination April 9.

Earlier, BJP president Rajnath Singh said his party had always stood for smaller states and during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule, it had created Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.

He also promised that in future the party would also work for Gorkhaland and Telangana (in Andhra Pradesh).

The GJM is leading an agitation for Gorkhaland, a separate state to be formed out of Darjeeling and the foothills of the Himalayas in West Bengal.