Youth from across the Darjeeling Hills marched from the Railway Station to GDNS Hall for the "Gorkhaland Sankalp" rally on Sunday.
Gorkhaland Returns to Darjeeling's Streets — NPNS Gives BJP Government Three Months on Statehood
Few political parties showed up in person, but the crowd told its own story
Gorkhaland is back on Darjeeling's streets. On Sunday, the Naya Party Nirman Samiti (NPNS) led a "Gorkhaland Sankalp" rally from Darjeeling Railway Station to GDNS Hall, reviving a demand that has simmered since the region's last major sustained agitation — the 104-day shutdown of 2017 — nearly nine years ago.
Few political parties showed up in person, but the crowd told its own story: a large turnout of Gen-Z youth from across the Hills, alongside members of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF) and the apolitical Gorkhaland Activist Samuha (GAS). The Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) didn't march but sent its backing in a press release. BGPM chief Anit Thapa — who resigned as GTA Chief Executive in June amid a corruption probe — wrote, "The only goal of the BGPM is Gorkhaland and we support the programme being held in Darjeeling today for the demand... Gorkhaland is an issue of the community."
Speaking at GDNS Hall, NPNS Chief Coordinator Sanjay Thulung framed the rally as a response to a promise he says is overdue. "The Home Minister, along with the Darjeeling MP, had said before the elections that once they formed the BJP government in the State, the dreams of the Gorkhas would become a reality within six months and that the BJP would be accountable for fulfilling it. Now three months have already passed," Thulung said. He gave the state government three more months to act on the statehood demand, warning that NPNS would "launch a full-scale agitation" if nothing moves — while insisting it would "remain democratic in nature." He also said the party would protest any alternative arrangement offered in place of full statehood, arguing that past structures like the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and the GTA had already failed to deliver.
The timing matters. BJP swept to power in West Bengal in May, unseating Mamata Banerjee's TMC after 15 years and putting a party that spent years courting Gorkha votes with statehood promises in an actual position to act on them. That's the pressure Thulung is leaning on. It also lands as the GTA itself sits without a confirmed chief executive following Thapa's resignation — meaning the region's most visible Gorkha political figure is currently backing a street movement from outside the administrative structure he used to run.
IGJF youth leader Rabgey Rai said his party's youth and women's fronts joined the rally "not only representing our party but also as supporters of Gorkhaland," and called on other parties to fall in line behind a united push. Sunday's rally builds on an all-party meeting the NPNS organised in Darjeeling on July 11 — part of a deliberate sequence rather than a one-off show of strength.
The next stop is Mirik, on August 20, with further details to be announced closer to the date. Whether the momentum holds — or fades the way past rounds of Gorkhaland agitation have — will depend largely on whether the BJP government in Kolkata treats Thulung's three-month clock as a real deadline or a rhetorical one.
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