Darjeeling hills woke up to a foggy monsoon morning on Sunday when polling for Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) election was conducted after almost 10 years. Even as the weather in the hills improved and skies cleared, the enthusiasm among the people for election to the regional autonomous body remained missing. In the politically sensitive hills, where candidates riding on popular sentiment record huge margins of victory, there were no queues visible in the first few hours of polling.
The streets in Darjeeling hills wore a deserted look and many shops, including those located in prominent areas like the Mall, remained closed.
At Singhmari, which was the epicentre of the violence during the 100-day-strike in the hills in 2017, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung arrived early in the morning. Before he entered his party office, he said that he would not cast his vote and was boycotting the election. Mr. Gurung said that it was up to the people to decide whether they wanted to cast their vote or not. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also stayed away from the polls calling the GTA “unconstitutional”.
