The Kalimpong Municipality. (C.F. Lepcha)

Kalimpong, July 13: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will move a no-confidence motion against the GNLF board of the municipality here on July 24, which could see the ouster of C.K. Kumai as the civic chairman.

In the 23-member board, the Morcha at present enjoys the support of 14 councillors, while the rest are GNLF members.

Morcha sources said according to rules the party councillors would write to Kumai on that day asking him to convene the board meeting within seven days. And unlike January 24, the Morcha is confident that there will be no last-minute surprises this time.

The GNLF had managed to defeat the Morcha-sponsored no-trust motion in January by wooing back some of its councillors who had earlier switched allegiance to the Morcha. However, within few weeks of the voting, the GNLF board was again reduced to a minority after most of the rebels rejoined the Morcha.

Since then Kumai has been hanging on to his post on technical ground as the municipality rules stipulate that a no-trust motion, once defeated, can be tabled only after six months. Late last month the chairman was virtually rendered powerless after the state government appointed the Kalimpong subdivisional officer P. T. Sherpa as the drawing and disbursing officer of the civic body.

The five-year term of the board ends in July next year.