How the 2017 Gorkhaland Agitation Broke the BJP-GJM Alliance and Changed Darjeeling Politics Forever

The 104-day shutdown agitation of 2017 was the longest and most violent political movement in Darjeeling's recent history. It was supposed to finally push the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state onto the national stage. Instead, it ended without achieving statehood, broke the BJP-GJM alliance from within, forced Bimal Gurung into hiding, and fundamentally changed the political balance of power in the hills for years to come.

What Triggered the 2017 Agitation

The immediate trigger was the West Bengal government's move to introduce Bengali as a compulsory language in hill schools. For the Gorkha community, whose mother tongue is Nepali, the decision felt like a direct attack on their cultural identity.

"Our mother tongue is Nepali, why would we learn Bengali? Now if someone says that everybody in India needs to learn Sanskrit, will Bengalis accept? This is the reason all of us have united," said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri at the time.

The anger quickly went beyond language. The agitation became a full revival of the Gorkhaland sentiment that had first erupted in the 1980s under GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh. Cutting across party lines, almost every hill political party — GJM, GNLF, Jan Andolan Party, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, and even local TMC and CPI-M leaders — backed the statehood demand.

BJP Was Caught in a Catch-22

For BJP, the agitation created an impossible political situation. The party had won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat twice — in 2009 and 2014 — with GJM's support, partly on the promise of sympathetically considering the Gorkhaland demand. Now that the agitation was at its peak, BJP could neither support it nor oppose it without paying a heavy political price.

"Our party is in a dilemma as it can neither oppose the demand for Gorkhaland nor support it. Supporting the demand for Gorkhaland means losing support in the plains, where we would be termed as anti-Bengali. But if we do not support the demand for a separate state, then we will lose our support in the hills," BJP district general secretary Shanta Kishore Gurung admitted frankly at the time.

The situation was made worse when BJP's state president Dilip Ghosh and national secretary Rahul Sinha both clearly opposed the Gorkhaland demand, directly contradicting what hill BJP leaders were telling their own supporters. The party's Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia was also criticized for being absent from the hills during the worst of the unrest, sending what local leaders called "a wrong message".

The 104-Day Shutdown and Its Human Cost

The agitation ran for 104 days between June and September 2017, making it one of the longest shutdowns in the history of Indian democratic protest. Shops, schools, offices, and transport remained closed. Tourism — the lifeblood of the Darjeeling economy — collapsed completely. Tea gardens stopped functioning. Daily life in the hills came to a standstill.

Violence flared repeatedly. Multiple deaths were reported, and the central government deployed CRPF forces in the hills. GJM workers and leaders faced arrests and police cases. Gurung himself became a fugitive, accused of multiple charges including sedition.

By mid-August 2017, cracks had already emerged within the agitation's unity. Other hill parties began criticizing GJM's leadership style and what they called its "big brotherly" attitude.

"There is serious lack of proper leadership. Although all of us had united for the cause of Gorkhaland, due to lack of leadership we could not channelise the people's anger or aspirations," a hill party leader said anonymously at the time.

The Agitation Ends Without Gorkhaland

In September 2017, the agitation was called off without any formal announcement of Gorkhaland statehood. The Centre and state government initiated talks, but no concrete outcome emerged for the statehood demand. The movement that had united the hills ended quietly, leaving behind a deep sense of frustration, unresolved legal cases, and a deeply weakened GJM.

"We have overused both our weapons of democratic movement. And now we have no ammo left in our arsenal to force the state and central governments to listen to our demands," a Jan Andolan Party leader admitted.

The Immediate Aftermath: GJM Flags Disappear from Households

The impact on GJM's political standing was swift and visible. Prior to September 2017, GJM flags had fluttered on almost every household in the Darjeeling hills — a symbol of the party's total dominance of hill politics. By early 2019, those flags had disappeared from most homes.

Gurung remained in hiding and in exile. TMC moved quickly to fill the vacuum, backing his former deputy Binay Tamang as the new GTA chief. A rival GJM faction under Tamang aligned with Mamata Banerjee's government.

BJP-GJM Alliance Continues But Changes Form

Despite the damage, the alliance between BJP and GJM did not formally collapse immediately after 2017. As the 2019 Lok Sabha elections approached, Gurung — still on the run — called on his supporters to back BJP, claiming the party had given him personal assurances that it would look into the Gorkhaland demand if re-elected.

"We have sent a memorandum to the BJP, demanding Gorkhaland. They have assured us that they will look into it. We are happy that their manifesto speaks about bringing a permanent solution to the region," Gurung said in a phone interview from hiding in 2019.

But the 2019 campaign itself was a sign of how much had changed. For the first time in nearly three decades, Gorkhaland barely featured as an election issue. BJP won Darjeeling again, but this time with GNLF support — not primarily GJM. The party had begun building its own independent base in the hills, reducing its dependence on Gurung.

Long-Term Political Consequences

The 2017 agitation left five lasting marks on Darjeeling hill politics:

1. End of GJM's total dominance — Before 2017, GJM was the unchallenged ruler of the hills. After 2017, it became one of several competing hill parties, its flags gone from homes and its leader in exile.

2. BJP's growing independence — Having seen what over-dependence on GJM could cost them, BJP began building its own local organizational strength in the hills. By 2019 and beyond, the party was increasingly capable of mobilizing hill voters without GJM's help.

3. The BJP's Gorkhaland contradiction exposed — The agitation forced BJP's contradictory position into the open. The party supports Gorkhaland in the hills but opposes it in the plains. That double-speak, which had been manageable during calmer periods, became visible and damaging during the 2017 crisis.

4. Gurung's personal political decline — Gurung never fully recovered his political standing after 2017. His 2020 switch to TMC backfired, his return to the BJP orbit has been uncertain, and by early 2026 he was publicly acknowledging his weakened position.

5. Gorkhaland demand loses momentum — Perhaps the most significant consequence. The agitation that was supposed to push Gorkhaland to the forefront of national politics instead exhausted the movement's energy. By 2019, statehood had already disappeared as the dominant election issue.

Why It Still Matters in 2026

The 2017 agitation is the reason BJP district hill president Sanjeev Lama's recent jibe at Gurung — "the day BJP stops harbouring you, you will be nowhere" — carries such weight. It is a reminder of how much the balance of power has shifted since 2017. The agitation that was supposed to be GJM's greatest triumph became, in the end, the beginning of its decline.

Have a tip on this story?

WhatsApp Khabar Darjeeling at our channel or email nowanad@gmail.com. Your identity will be protected.

No comments yet

Be the first to share your thoughts!