"The people of the hills have been cheated by Didi," GJM chief Bimal Gurung said. "We trusted her and accepted to be a part of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) hoping that through the autonomous council she would bring development to the hills. But it was an eyewash. The GTA became a failure the day we had to move the High Court seeking judicial intervention in changing the principal secretary to GTA," Gurung told The Indian Express.

He said it was mentioned in the GTA agreement that all the old political cases would be withdrawn and the GLP cadres recruited in government service. "But see what she is doing. She did not recruit the GLP cadres, who are disciplined and trained youths from the hills. Instead, she has started picking them up and sending them to jail by framing them in false cases," he said.

He claimed that the state government did not withdraw any political case against the GJM leaders in the last two years and "now she (Banerjee) is reviving them and arresting our people." He said Banerjee did inaugurate several projects, but "all of them were old ones".