Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League

Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) (Nepali: अखिल भारतीय गोर्खा लीग) (also called All India Gorkha League (AIGL/IGL)) is a political party working amongst the Nepali-speaking population in Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India. The party was founded in 1943 by Damber Singh Gurung. The current president is Bharati Tamang, widow of late Madan Tamang, a former president of ABGL. Pratap Khati is the General Secretary of the party.

Ahead of the 1999 DGHC elections, ABGL was part of the United Front, an alliance consisting of Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists, ABGL, Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Gorkha Janashakti, Communist Party of India, All India Trinamool Congress, Bharatiya Nepali Bir Gorkha and Sikkim Rashtriya Mukti Morcha.

ABGL was later a part of the People's Democratic Front (PDF), a six-party alliance led by the CPRM and including Indian National Congress (Hills), Gorkha National Liberation Front (C.K. Pradhan), ABGL, Bharatiya Janata Party and Gorkha Democratic Front (a party that was formed by Madan Tamang before his return to ABGL). PDF stood for Gorkha autonomy but was opposed to the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) led by Subhash Ghisingh.^[1]

ABGL is currently part of the Democratic Front, an alliance of the CPRM, BJP and other parties. ABGL opposes the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and stands for peaceful democracy in the Darjeeling hills. It is opposed to the setting up of an Interim Authority in Darjeeling in place of a full-fledged state of Gorkhaland.

On 21 May 2010, ABGL president Madan Tamang was stabbed to death (allegedly by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supporters) in Darjeeling, which led to a spontaneous shutdown in the three Darjeeling hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong.^[2][3] Subsequently his wife Bharati Tamang was elected as the ABGL president.^[4]

ABGL contested the West Bengal legislative assembly elections held on 18 April 2011 from three constituencies in the Darjeeling hills. The three candidates Bharati Tamang from Darjeeling, Tribhuwan Rai from Kalimpong and Shiva Kumar Pradhan from Kurseong all lost the elections.^[5]

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