They demanded that Subhas Ghising, interim caretaker of the Council appointed by the state government, step down immediately.

The arrival of truckloads of slogan-chanting Gorkha Janamukti Morcha supporters generated tension in the town and its outskirts. The police refused to allow them to begin an indefinite hunger strike outside the office of the SDO, Siliguri.

The town, the police said, has nothing to do with the present agitation and it should be confined to the hills. The agitators were barricaded near the highway crossing and forced back.

In Kolkata, the state urban development minister, Ashok Bhattacharya, said an attempt was being made to rouse passions along communal lines. “Why should the hill people come down in trucks and hold protests in Siliguri?” he said.

The administration however, allowed an 11-member team to begin a hunger strike near Pintail village resort, where Ghising had been staying for the past three days — ever since he returned from Darjeeling. He still refuses to talk to the media.

Other teams of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, meanwhile, began hunger strikes in the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong.

The Morcha maintains that it is not interested to talk to the state government.