Ghisingh outside his house on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Darjeeling, March 16: Subash Ghisingh, who once lorded over the hills, today sneaked into a Darjeeling draped in the green-white-yellow of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

Neither did protesters block his route nor supporters greet him when an Ambassador, accompanied by four security vehicles, stopped in front of the GNLF chief’s house on Zakir Hussain Road.

Ghisingh, who appeared to have lost weight, stepped out of the car and — uncharacteristically — waved to reporters. “I can’t speak, I have a sore throat,” he said.

“I’ll call you in a few days,” the GNLF chief told reporters pestering him for his comments on the situation in the hills.

Ghisingh left the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company rest house in Siliguri, where he had been holed up for the past few days, at 12.30pm. He reached Darjeeling some two hours later.

His son Mohan was in a car at the rear of the motorcade.

After Ghisingh went into the house, his attendants got busy shifting the luggage from the boot of the car. A brown leather bag was taken out from the backseat of his car.

Alerted by the sudden arrival of a posse of cars and security personnel, some residents stepped out of their homes. S.K. Lama, the GNLF chief of Rimbick who has a house in the neighbourhood, was the first party man to scurry to the spot, still in his slippers.

Asked if he knew about Ghisingh’s arrival, Lama said he didn’t.

The Morcha had said it would not prevent Ghisingh from returning to the hills after he resigned as caretaker administrator of the DGHC. “We have nothing to do with Ghisingh,” Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said today.

Ghisingh had left Darjeeling on February 6, when his party still had control of the hills. Sources said he had expected the Morcha-led protest against the Sixth Schedule bill to end once the special status was granted. However, the bill was shelved.

A month and a half on, a fluttering GNLF flag is a rare sight in the town. Many GNLF leaders have quit in his absence, the latest being Ajoy Edwards, the convener of its youth wing. “I’m not with any political party now,” he said.