An apolitical forum of 11 Gorkha communities flagged the longstanding demand for Scheduled Tribe status and warned the BJP that the party would face “challenges” if the ST tag was not conferred on them before the Lok Sabha elections.

“For the past 10 years, we have been raising the demand. The same demand has been raised from the neighbouring state of Sikkim and yet, the Narendra Modi government has not done anything about it,” said Kanchan Gurung, the national president of the Gorkha Bhartiya Janjati (11) Maha Sangh.

He was talking to newspersons in Siliguri on Thursday.

In the Darjeeling hills, the communities which have been demanding the ST tag are Bhujel, Gurung, Mangar, Newar, Jogi, Khas, Rai, Sunuwar, Thami, Yakka (Dewan) and Dhimal.

Gurung said the BJP had promised the 11 communities twice (that the demand would be met) — before the Parliament elections in 2014 and 2019.

“Now, another Lok Sabha election will be held. Let us make it clear that if the demand is not met before the polls, they (BJP) will face challenges from us,” he said.

According to him, around nine lakh voters of the 11 communities live in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, which the BJP won three times since 2009.

“These voters play a significant role in the Lok Sabha polls. We believe the political parties, including the BJP, are aware of it,” said another representative of the forum.

In 2016, the Union tribal affairs ministry had formed a committee to look into the demand and make necessary recommendations. Since then, three such committees have been formed.

In 2019, the final report was compiled by a committee headed by M.R. Tshering,
a joint secretary of the ministry.

Since then, the report has been lying with the office of registrar general of India.