Thaindian News

Siliguri, March 29 (IANS) Bharati Tamang, widow of slain Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) chief Madan Tamang, has been nominated as one of the party’s three candidates from the Darjeeling hills for the April-May West Bengal assembly elections.

Bharati, who has taken over as party president after her husband was killed in Darjeeling May 21 last, will file her nomination Wednesday from the Darjeeling constituency, an ABGL leader said.

S.K. Pradhan will fight from Kurseong while Tribhuban Rai will be in fray from Kalimpong, ABGL general secretary Laxman Pradhan said.

The brutal killing of Madan Tamang, a staunch opponent of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), triggered anger and shock in the Darjeeling hills. The GJM, which has been spearheading the agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland, had then drawn flak amid widespread allegations that it was behind the incident.

Meanwhile, former Andhra Pradesh chief secretary Trilok Dewan, Rohit Sharma, Harka Bahadur Chetry and Ram Bhujel Monday filed their papers for Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong constituencies respectively as Gorkha Janamukti Morcha nominees.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader K.B. Wattar has entered the fray from Darjeeling assembly constituency.

The process of nomination filing for the first phase April 18 started March 24 covering 54 constituencies in six north Bengal districts. The last date of filing nomination for the first phase is March 31. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is April 4.

Significant among the leaders who have filed their papers in Darjeeling is state Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya (CPI-M) who would contest from his home constituency of Siliguri.