Congress names former Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh head Munish Tamang as Darjeeling candidate

Kolkata: The Congress on Tuesday announced Dr Munish Tamang as its candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat where voting is scheduled to take place in the second phase of polling on April 26.

Tamang, the former national president of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP) who joined the Congress in New Delhi last week, will be supported by the Hamro Party (HP), party sources said.

The HP, considered one of the principal opposition forces in the Hills, has joined the INDIA bloc.

Tamang, originally from Kalimpong, is a professor at Delhi University and has been associated with the apolitical BGP for the past twenty years.

The BJP has nominated sitting MP Raju Bista while the Trinamool Congress has fielded Gopal Lama.

BJP's Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma has announced that he would contest as an independent against the party's official nominee from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat.