As ex-foreign secy Shringla steps up Darjeeling outreach, hills abuzz over his plunge into LS fray

Former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, 61, has been reaching out to people across the Darjeeling belt in West Bengal for the past several months, holding various programmes under the aegis of his NGO Darjeeling Welfare Society, which he had floated in May 2023.

Shringla’s public outreach has triggered speculations over his foray into electoral politics, with the Lok Sabha polls barely a few months away.

There has been a growing buzz in local political circles that Shringla might be fielded by the BJP from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency in the upcoming polls. This was fuelled after the BJP’s Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma recently urged the party leadership to give ticket from Darjeeling to a local candidate or “Bhumiputra” (son of the soil)”. He even threatened to contest as an Independent candidate if the party nominates an “outsider” from the constituency.

The sitting BJP MP from Darjeeling, Raju Bista, is a Gorkha leader who hails from Manipur.

A prominent Gorkha face, Shringla hails from the Darjeeling hills. He traces the roots of both his parents to Darjeeling, where he has ancestral properties although he spent most of his time away from the hills since his school days.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Shringla said the talks about him contesting the polls were “speculation”. “It is what it is – speculation. I am undertaking social work in my home area among my people,” he said.

In a lecture that he delivered at North Bengal University last Friday, Shringla highlighted the importance of Siliguri, saying that Darjeeling, Siliguri and Sikkim can become a new golden triangle for tourism in the region.
The ex-diplomat has maintained that he would work for the people of the region. On Saturday, he visited