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Kalimpong, Jan. 14: After reining in the rebels in Kalimpong Municipality, a rattled GNLF today sought to re-claim the legacy of its late leader C.K. Pradhan by giving a renewed call for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

The party claimed that seven of the nine municipality commissioners who had rebelled last Friday have decided not to seek a no-trust vote against municipality chairman C.K. Kumai.

The local Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, on its part, said only five of the commissioners have backed out, while two of the remaining four are having second thoughts about rebelling. Of the 13 who had brought the no-trust vote notice, four are Independents. Three of them have recently joined the Morcha.

However, given that it is behind the numbers game in the municipal board following the latest twist in the tale, the Morcha has decided not to press for the tabling of the no-confidence motion against the Kumai-led board.

“We will let the no-confidence notice pass for the time being. In any case, we were not the ones to engineer the rebellion; it was the commissioners who had approached us on their own,” said Kalyan Dewan, the Morcha’s Kalimpong unit president.

Samuel Gurung, the secretary, had earlier said all the nine GNLF rebels would be formally inducted into the party in the presence of its president Bimal Gurung in Darjeeling on Monday

The GNLF’s Kalimpong unit president Dawa Pakhrin, on the other hand, said the seven commissioners had never rebelled against the party, but were unhappy with the municipality chairman as they felt their wards were not being looked after well.

“We appreciate their points of view. All of them are innocent in our eyes,” said Pakhrin. Earlier in the day, the GNLF sought to usurp the legacy of Pradhan, who was shot dead in 2002. Months before that he had quit the party after falling out with its chief Subash Ghisingh. Pradhan was a prominent figure of the Gorkhaland agitation and a one-time close confidant of Ghisingh.

Addressing its youth cadre at a programme in Town Hall here, Pakhrin said the party would renew the Gorkhaland agitation with the blessings of Pradhan.

To show its new-found fondness for Pradhan, a garlanded portrait of the slain leader was also placed on the dais. Asked if resurrecting Pradhan would not antagonise the party high command, Pakhrin replied in the negative. “C.K. daju (elder brother) was a strong votary of Gorkhaland, and is held in high esteem by the party,” Pakhrin claimed.