Darjeeling: West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh today faced protests here by Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) supporters, who like some other hill parties demanded that its delegates leave Darjeeling hills immediately.

Ghosh and his team were also shown black flags and asked to refrain from disturbing the “peace and stability” in the region.

They had faced protests yesterday too by supporters of Jan Andolan Party and expelled Gorkha Janamukti Morcha leader Binay Tamang during their visit to Kalimpong and posters with the message ‘BJP go back’ and requesting the hill people to boycott the party’s delegation have come up in the hills.

The state BJP president, however, refuted the GNLF allegation that he was in the hills to foment trouble and claimed that the protests against the BJP delegation were fuelled by the TMC.

“These protests are fuelled and funded by the TMC. Except GJM and Bimal Gurung, all other hill parties are mere extra players who are working on behalf of the TMC. The people of the hills are with the BJP and the GJM and that is why we have received so much support wherever we are going.

“Hundreds of locals greeted us and shared their problems with us. The response has been tremendous,” Ghosh told PTI.

He claimed it was due to his initiative that peace has returned to Darjeeling. “I talked to the union home minister, after which peace returned to the Darjeeling hills,” Ghosh told reporters.

The BJP team is scheduled to visit various places in the hills and neighbouring Sikkim and hold meetings with its workers and the GJM leadership.

Expelled GJM leader and vice-chairman of the Board of Administrators (BoA), Anit Thapa too accused the BJP of trying to foment trouble in the hills.

“What was it (BJP) doing for the three-and-a-half months when the hills were burning? Now that peace has returned, it wants to create trouble,” he alleged.

The rebel GJM group led by Binay Tamang, chairman of BoA and Thapa is slated to take out rallies in various places of the hills to protest the visit of the saffron party’s delegation.