 This led to violence in the Darjeeling hills and an indefinite strike was called by GJM that lasted 9 days.Jaswant Singh, the BJP candidate, supported by the GJM, won the Darjeeling constituency in the Indian general elections 2009 defeating his nearest rival Jibesh Sarkar of the CPI(M) by a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes.The GJM had supported the BJP in lieu of the latter's positive outlook towards the formation of Gorkhaland as mentioned in their party manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.