Malda, Oct. 24: The Socialist Party, a constituent of the Left Front, forged an alliance with the Trinamul Congress to take control of the Muchia gram panchayat in Old Malda, bringing to an end the five-month rule of the CPM.

The Socialist Party put up Dinesh Khan against the CPM candidate for the pradhan’s post and he scraped through by a single vote in the 13-member gram panchayat. The election was necessitated by the resignation of Ujjwal Sarkar of the CPM last month.

The CPM has six members, while the Socialist Party has two. The Trinamul Congress has four members and the Congress has one. With the votes of the Trinamul and Congress members, the Socialist Party wrested the panchayat from the CPM.

The Socialist Party, however, has blamed the CPM for the state of affairs. “We had voted in favour of the CPM after the panchayat polls early this year and it was decided then that our party would be included in a committee formed to monitor the development of the area. But that did not happen. Moreover, we were also not told that the pradhan had resigned,” said local Socialist Party leader Milan Das.

He added that the two members who voted against the CPM would be expelled from the party.

The district secretary of the CPM, Jiban Moitra, said the two Socialist Party members of the panchayat had been “purchased” by Trinamul. He added that the Socialist Party had no control over its own members.