Darjeeling: Terming as "priority" the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state, Jana Andolan Party chief and former Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri said his party would send a representative to Tuesday's all party meeting with "certain demands" amid the GJM-sponsored indefinite shutdown in north West Bengal hills.
The leader, however, ruled out the possibility of attending the meeting himself.
"We would send a representative to the meeting with certain demands. However, the demand for Gorkhaland is our topmost priority," Chhetri said over the phone yesterday.
JAP was absent from the GJM-sponsored all-party meeting in the hills last week but has extended support to the Gorkhaland movement. GJM, the dominant party in the hills, has launched an indefinite shutdown which entered the eighth day yesterday.
Vowing to resign from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the developmental body in the North Bengal hills, Chhetri said they would also not participate in the forthcoming GTA election to be held this year.
The former GJM MLA, who formed his own political outfit last year, said that they would urge the BJP to support the demand of separate Gorkhaland through a political resolution and put pressure on S.S. Ahluwalia, the BJP MP from Darjeeling, to either table the "Gorkhaland bill" in Parliament or resign.
