About 500 supporters of the party reached Kolkata on Thursday night to meet the state law minister and Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The supporters, coming from Mirik, Sonada, Kurseong, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Ghoom and other remote areas of the Darjeeling district, took out a rally in Kolkata on Thursday. Some Naxalite groups also participated in the rally. It started from Subodh Mullick Square and ended at Esplanade.

“We will not accept anything other than a separate state for Gorkhas. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government should start thinking about our demand,” said Arun Ghatani, secretary of CPRM. He added: “For the sake of Gorkhaland, we are ready to join hands with GJM’s Bimal Gurung.”

But in doing so, the party will resort to democratic ways and not adopt “violent methods” as chosen by the GJM.

The supporters of CPRM spent the entire day meeting bureaucrats and members of the Human Rights Commission to plead for the formation of Gorkhaland. A 20-member team, headed by the supporters of the Democratic Revolutionary Youth Front and Democratic Revolutionary Nari Sangha (the student and women’s wing of the party respectively) met the Governor at Raj Bhavan.

“The Governor listened to us but has not supported our stand,” said Sanjeela Ghisingh, the leader of Democratic Revolutionary Nari Morcha. The members also met Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty, and law minister Rabilal Moitra at Writers’ Buildings. They demanded adequate compensation for those killed in the hills during the Gorkhaland movement in 1980s.