Krishnagar/Chinsurah, June 28: Two BJP village council members today helped the “less corrupt” CPM wrest a Nadia panchayat board from the Congress.

Sridam Pramanik and Arati Das — BJP members of the Belghoria village panchayat in Shantipur, about 70km from Calcutta — voted for the Marxists, helping the party to take control of the board.

“Had we not got the support of the two BJP members, we would not have been able to wrest the board from the Congress,” said Amar Durlav, the newly elected CPM pradhan.

The CPM had seven of the panchayat’s 17 seats, two short of majority.

The Congress had five seats, the Trinamul Congress three and the BJP two.

The BJP duo said they supported the CPM as they found it less corrupt than the Congress.

“Last time we had supported the Congress to form the board. But we found the previous board full of corruption. So we decided to support the CPM this time,” Arati said.

CPM leaders in the district said they found nothing wrong in taking the BJP’s support to form the board.

“If opposition members come out and support us, what can we do?” said Nadia CPM secretary Ashu Ghosh.

Kidnap rampage

In Hooghly district, CPM supporters set several shops on fire in the Dhianiakhali area this afternoon after a party village council member was allegedly kidnapped.

Shaila Santra was on his way to take part in polls to form a panchayat board.

The CPM alleged that Trinamul was behind the abduction of Santra, who police said was kidnapped by “unknown miscreants”.

The panchayat has eight members, four each from the CPM and Trinamul.

As Santra could not arrive at the panchayat office, Trinamul formed the board.

“According to the complaint lodged by local CPM leaders, Santra was kidnapped from his car by unknown miscreants when he was on his way to the panchayat office,” said additional superintendent of police Debashish Boral.

“We have launched a search for him,” the officer added.

As soon as news of the abduction spread, CPM supporters went on the rampage.

The party workers set eight shops on fire and gheraoed the block development officer for eight hours till 9 this evening.

The CPM supporters demanded that the formation of the panchayat board should be declared illegal.