Featured Image: Binay Tamang (left) and Roshan Giri in file photographs. 

By A Newsman

Siliguri, 02 September: GORKHA Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Binay Tamang, who is the line of fire in Darjeeling Hills for announcing a suspension of shutdown in the Hills, has claimed that he had consulted party chief Bimal Gurung and general secretary Roshan Giri before making the announcement.

Tamang has also accused Giri of hatching a conspiracy against him both within and outside the party.

“I had spoken to Bimal-ji through Praveen Subbha’s phone and told him about suspending the strike. I had sent an SMS to Roshan Giri as well. They both gave a go ahead. Had this been received positively in the Hills both Bimal-ji and Roshan-ji would have taken the credit. But now that this has evoked a hostile reaction, I am being made the scapegoat,” Tamang said in a video message released late last night.

“This is a conspiracy against me going on for the past one month to frame me.  Roshan Giri does not want me to supersede his popularity. This is despite that I have no intention to replace Bimal-ji or Roshan Giri. I am a loyal fighter for Gorkhaland since 1986 for the sake of the cause and not for political ambition,” he had said in the message.

Tamang, whose expulsion from GJM was announced by Giri today morning in an unsigned Press release issued in the name of assistant general secretary Jyoti Rai, said that if he had the intention to take bribe from the state government and desert Gokhaland cause, he could have done so years ago.

“I am deeply hurt that my effigy has been burned and people are calling me names,” he said.

Tamang’s claims come at a time when the Press statement released by Giri has also informed that GJM will send a delegation to the meeting with the state government in Siliguri on 12 September to talk on Gorkhaland demand.

This has surprised many in the Hills as Bimal Gurng had in an audio message on 31 August night questioned the justification of any further talks with the state and had said that he would soon send a team to Delhi to pursue the Centre.

In a related development, police this morning arrested GJM Kurseong Municipality chairman Krishna Limbu and cadre Jigme Lepcha from Kurseong on charges of inciting violence in the Hills. After arrest, they have been brought down to Siliguri.

Police today also produced in the Siliguri court today 13 GJM leaders, including Terai leaders Shankar Adhikari and Hemant Gautam, who were arrested yesterday from different places in the Hills.