GJM rebel grip on Kalimpong Municipality...20 against Suva Pradhan -2 for Pradhan

Anit Thapa GTA VC with the proposed new Chairman Rabi Pradhan (Right) and Vice Chairman Bhim Agarwal (left)

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 14 December 2017, Kalimpong: The rebel faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is set to take control of the Kalimpong municipality after chief Suva Pradhan was voted out on Thursday in a no-confidence motion that he chose not to face by resigning.

A little after the meeting began for the no-trust motion, Pradhan came out and told reporters he had quit. But the councillors belonging to the rebel Morcha group of Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa decided to hold the vote anyway. Twenty of the 22 councillors present supported the motion.

Pradhan was once seen as a loyalist of Morcha chief Bimal Gurung. Kalimpong is the third of the four hill civic bodies to have come in the grasp of the rebel Morcha group after Kurseong and Darjeeling. Trinamul runs the Mirik municipality.