The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is a registered unrecognized political party,[2] that campaigns for the creation of a separate state Gorkhaland within India, out of districts in the north of West Bengal.
[5][6] Gurung, who was considered one of the most powerful leaders of the hills, stated to oppose the Sixth Schedule bill even though it had received Cabinet approval in the Indian Parliament.
[3] The aims and the objectives of the new party was to "fight for the democratic right of the Indian Gorkhas living in India and (to) work unitedly for the creation of separate state for the people residing in the three Hill Sub-Division of Darjeeling, Siliguri Terai and Dooars areas.
the BJP, the Congress, the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM), and the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL).
[14] The GNLF tried stalling the GJM through various means, and an FIR was also lodged against the party president Bimal Gurung for the attack on a former DGHC councilor K.B.
[20] The Parliamentary Committee in its findings suggested that "the Ministry of Home Affairs is required to make a fresh assessment of the ground realities all over again before proceeding with the Bills in the two Houses of Parliament".
[14] The total area of the proposed state is 6246 km2 and comprises Banarhat, Bhaktinagar, Birpara, Chalsa, Darjeeling, Jaigaon, Kalchini, Kalimpong, Kumargram, Kurseong, Madarihat, Malbazar, Mirik and Nagarkatta.
[31] GJM refused to attends the talks as the state Government had set preconditions that they would discuss developmental issues but not Gorkhaland.
Against the backdrop of socio-economic exploitation, political and cultural hegemony, misgovernance and exclusion, the demand has become an expression of the ingrained and deep rooted aspirations of the people to secure to themselves, and to their succeeding generations, the right to determine their own future.
[39] The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha announced that it would contest the GTA polls, which it had earlier threatened to boycott over the Justice Sen-headed committee recommendations on territorial inclusion of the Dooars and Terai that it had rejected.
This was characterised by strikes, 'Janata Curfews' (in which townspeople stayed inside their houses), mass protests and the deployment of the CRPF into the hils.
On 8 February 2011, three GJM activists were shot dead at Shibshu (one of whom succumbed to her injuries later) by the police as they tried to enter Jalpaiguri district on a padyatra led by Bimal Gurung from Gorubathan to Jaigaon.
[46] Jaswant Singh, the BJP candidate, supported by the GJM, won the Darjeeling constituency in the Indian general elections 2009 defeating his nearest rival Jibesh Sarkar of the CPI(M) by a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes.
The GJM had supported the BJP in lieu of the latter's positive outlook towards the formation of Gorkhaland as mentioned in their party manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.
GJM candidates won three Darjeeling hill seats in the 2011 West Bengal state assembly election held on 18 April 2011.
[49] TMC hoped to gain the support of GJM for their candidate, Baichung Bhutia for Darjeeling (Lok Sabha constituency) in the Indian general elections in 2014.
Ahluwalia has claimed that the state government, led by TMC has resorted to scare tactics and electoral fraud to win the election in Darjeeling.
[58] Attempting to get Gurung behind the bars, the West Bengal police ran several operations in the hills which resulted in the killing of a few officers.
[68][69] Leaders of the Gurung faction had earlier promised to back the TMC in the rest of the 14 seats in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts.