Along with the entire state, voting is also taking place in hilly districts like Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Two-tier panchayat elections will be held in these two districts after almost two decades. As soon as the day was announced, the preparations for that election started in both the districts. On Friday, Darjeeling District Magistrate S Pannambalam held an all-party meeting on the election. After the meeting, the District Magistrate said,
Panchayat elections will be held in 598 seats of 70 Gram Panchayats in Darjeeling district. Based on the information available till January 1, 2023, a total of 3 lakh 87 thousand 952 voters will exercise their voting rights. Similarly, polling will be held in 281 constituencies of 42 village panchayats in Kalimpong district. Where 1 lakh 75 thousand voters will vote. The District Magistrate said that voting will be done by ballot and not by EVM.
Panchayat polls were held in the hills for the last time in 2000 during the tenure of GNLF supremo Subhash Gheesingh. That system was in effect until 2005. Since then, Gheesingh started a campaign to block the vote to demand the implementation of the sixth schedule in the hills. Then from 2007, with the rise of Bimal Gurung in the hills, a strong movement started demanding a separate Gorkhaland.
Later, the movement subsided, but the Panchayat elections did not take place in the hills. After Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, GTA or Gorkha Territorial Administration was created by removing Parbatya Parishad. The GTA agreement called for the introduction of a three-tier panchayat system in the hills. But since the GTA Act has not yet been recognized as a constitution, it has not been possible to introduce the Tristar Panchayat election system. That is why the State Election Commission has decided to hold two-tier panchayat polls in Pahar.