Bolpur, June 24: Politics is the art of the impossible. The CPM today got its nominee elected chairman of Rampurhat municipality with support from a BJP councillor.

Though Arup Mukherjee was chosen through secret ballot, the Birbhum BJP leadership expelled councillor Subhasish Chowdhury for siding with the CPM.

After being thrown out of the party, Chowdhury confessed to having voted for Mukherjee. “I had every right to rise above party politics to vote for a man who will work for the development of the area (about 280 km from Calcutta),” he said later.

In the 17-member board, the Left Front has seven seats, the Congress four, the Trinamul Congress one, the BJP three and Independents two.

A BJP councillor and an Independent were absent when the voting to choose between Mukherjee and Gita Chakraborty of the BJP took place. Seven councillors ? four from the Congress, one from Trinamul and the BJP and an Independent ? voted for Chakraborty. Being a candidate, she did not have a vote.

District CPM leaders feigned ignorance about who voted in their favour. “We got an extra vote, but don’t know if it was the BJP councillor’s,” said secretary Dilip Ganguly.