2022 Gorkhaland Territorial Administration election

26 June 2022
All 45 seats in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration 23 seats needed for a majority
Registered	7.32 lakh
Turnout	59.05% [1]
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Anit Thapa Ajoy Edwards Binay Tamang Party BGPM HP (as independent) AITC Leader since 2022 2021 2021 Leader's seat Kurseong Darjeeling Sadar 3 Dali-Bloomfield Last election New party New party 0 seats Seats won 27 8 5   Fourth party   Leader Bimal Gurung Party GJM (as independent) Leader since 2007 Last election 45 seats Seats won 5
Chief executive before election vacant Chief executive after election Anit Thapa BGPM

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration election will be held on 26 June 2022 to elect all 45 members of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, in West Bengal state, India.^[2][3]

Background

The previous election took place in 2012 which was won by GJM.^[4] In 2017, all GJM councillors resigned from their posts stating that GTA failed to fulfill their expectations and aspirations of the people.^[5] Sooner Binay Tamang was appointed by the Government of West Bengal as acting chairman of the body. Later Anit Thapa was appointed as its acting chairman.

Following the municipal election all over the state, West Bengal State Election Commission announced the date of poll on 27 May 2022. GJM leader and previous chairman of GTA, Bimal Gurung started a hunger strike in demand for the postponement of the election, just after the poll date was announced.^[6] BJP also supported Gurung and stated that GTA is not a permanent solution of the Gorkha issues.^[7]

Schedule

The election schedule was declared by West Bengal State Election Commission on 27 May 2022.^[8]

Parties and alliances

The party which won the last election, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha officially didn't fielded any candidates, however its members contested from all 45 seats as independent candidates.^[9] On the other hand, Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in the state confirmed that they will contest from only 10 seats.^[10] BGPM broke its alliance with TMC and decided to contest from 36 seats on their own.^[11][12] Newly formed Hamro Party also fielded candidates in all seats.^[13]

CPI(M) fielded 12 candidates and Congress fielded 5 candidates in the polls.^[14] A total of 277 candidates, including 169 independents, are contesting the GTA election. BJP and its allies - Gorkha National Liberation Front, Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists and All India Gorkha League decided not to contest the GTA election.^[15]

Party		Symbol	Alliance	No. of contesting candidates
	Independents supported by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gurung) (GJM(G))	IND	None	45
	Hamro Party (HP)	IND		45
	Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM)	IND		35
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))		Left Front	12
	All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)		AITC+	10
	Indian National Congress (INC)		UPA	5
	Independents (IND)	None	None	124

Winning candidates

Results

Political Party		Seats Won	Net Change in Seats	Vote Share
	Independent supported by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gurung)*	2	43
	Hamro Party*	8	8
	Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha*	27	27
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	0	-
	All India Trinamool Congress	5	5
	Indian National Congress(INC)	0	-
	Independent	3	3
Total		45		100

" * " denotes parties that are contesting the election as independent candidates (not with any party symbols)

Aftermath

After the election result was out, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that Trinamool Congress had alliance with BGPM.^[16] BGPM president Anit Thapa went to meet Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata after a few days.^[17]

All 45 elected member took oath on 13 July. BGPM had the majority on their own as they had won 27 seats. BGPM along with its ally TMC, and other three independent members, formed the board.^[18] Anit Thapa became the chief executive of GTA while Rajesh Chauhan became its chairman. Their oath taking ceremony took place on 14 July in the presence of Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.^[19]

References