Sikkim: Hamro party for collective leadership all set to move statehood demand

The Hamro Party, which recently won a landslide victory in the Darjeeling Municipality elections, announced today that they will form a common platform to push for statehood.

Ajoy Edwards, the president of the Hamro Party, told reporters on Monday that the party would unite all Nepali-speaking people on a common platform and push for statehood.

“In the month of August, we will be organising a three-day programme to mark ‘Bhasa Diwas’ where we will be inviting representatives from Dehradun, Assam, Manipur, Sikkim along with other places in the country where Nepali language is spoken and an agenda for statehood will be fixed. I feel that we should all take up the demand of statehood unitedly under a collective leadership. I feel that this issue is related to our people spread everywhere,” he said.

Edwards emphasised that the only way to achieve statehood is through mass movement, not agitations.

“In the past when only a leadership from Darjeeling did an agitation for it, a settlement was made due to vested interests of wanting to rule. The negotiation for statehood was only weakened by it which will not be the case when the demand is done by a collective leadership from everywhere,” he said while adding that he was giving an emphasis to Nepali language as it was what united Nepalis of the country.

“An agitation in the hills is of no use as focus should be on creating public relation in support for the demand in Delhi. To take the demand forward, we feel that we should go forward diplomatically, constitutionally, creatively and in a non-violent manner,” he said.

Edwards maintained that this collective leadership should have offices in Kolkata and Delhi, as well as a continuous exercise of lobbying and pressure, particularly in Delhi.

Edwards, whose party will form the Darjeeling municipal board tomorrow, said, “We have already laid out what we will be doing in 100 days as announced earlier among which include repair of the clock tower and keeping its building clean, different paper works like building plans and trade license be processed fast, making public financial statements of the municipality every month, free ambulance service, coaching classes for competitive examinations and diagnostic clinics.”

After winning 18 of the 32 wards, the Hamro Party is forming the Darjeeling municipality board. According to sources, the chairman will most likely be Ritesh Portel, and vice chairperson Yangzi Sherpa will be announced tomorrow. The party had decided that Edwards would be the chairman, but he only received five votes in Ward 22.