After Telangana, GJM now presses for Gorkhaland's creation

With the Lok Sabha Tuesday passing a bill to create a separate Telangana, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung urged the central government to consider the demand for the separate state of Gorkhaland.

"Today's passage of the Telengana bill makes it clear that the state's consent is not necessary for its bifurcation, a fact which we have been reiterating for a long time. We would now request the centre to similarly consider the just and fair demand for separate state of Gorkhaland," he said on a social networking site.

Gurung also exuded confidence that the central government will take "an unilateral decision on creating Gorkhaland despite protest from the rest of Bengal" and observed that the Telangana bill proved that those opposing creation of smaller states wrongly argued that consent from the state assembly was essential.

"Creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland along the lines of Telangana will fulfil the long standing demand of the people of Darjeeling, Dooars and surrounding Terai regions and bring justice to the Indian Gorkhas," he added.

The GJM last year had intensified its separatist movement but it buckled under a massive crackdown by the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government and later adopted a reconciliatory approach seemingly putting the Gorkhaland demand on the backburner.