Nitin Nabin seeks GNLF support from Mann Ghising after BJP ditches alliance for GJM
Telegraph | 4 April 2026
BJP national president Nitin Nabin has reached out for support to a sulking Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), which the saffron party had ditched to tie up with GNLF’s rival Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) for the Assembly elections.
A source told The Telegraph that Nabin wrote to GNLF president Mann Ghisingh on April 2 seeking support for the BJP candidates in the region and stressing the need to preserve the alliance forged in 2019.
“The party has decided to convene a central committee meeting on April 5, following which the party will announce its stand,” said a source in the GNLF.
Party sources said that there are strong indications that the GNLF will support the BJP.
However, it will not be easy because GNLF supporters would have to vote for the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader, Noman Rai, who is contesting on a BJP ticket from Darjeeling.
Sources said that many party supporters and workers were miffed that Neeraj Zimba, the GNLF’s sitting MLA, was dropped by the BJP this time.
Zimba had won the Darjeeling seat twice on a BJP ticket.
Other than Noman, the BJP has fielded its own candidates — Bharat Chhetri, an Olympian and the former Indian hockey team captain, from Kalimpong, and BJP leader Sonam Lama from Kurseong.
“We did not lobby for a ticket with the central BJP leadership. Our party has always looked at working for the benefit of the community, and our supporters will rise above party politics for the sake of the community,” said a GNLF leader.
The GNLF, founded by Subash Ghisingh on April 5, 1980, controlled the hills from 1988 to 2008 until it was ousted from power by the GJM.
Bimal Gurung, who was with the GNLF, founded the GJM in 2007 and is the current party president.
The GNLF also faces another challenge: the Election Commission (EC) delisted the party from the list of registered unrecognised parties on September 19, 2025, for not contesting an election in the last six years.
Last year, the EC delisted 474 parties across India, including 12 in Bengal, for failing to participate in elections over the last six years.