The BJP has been robbed of its slender majority in Alipurduar’s Kumargram panchayat samiti after a winner defected to Trinamul amid an alleged “decoy drama” that drew him from Assam where the BJP flock had been quarantined.

Since Pratap Lama joined Trinamul on Tuesday after rushing from Assam following claims about his father’s illness, BJP leaders have been exploring options to form the board at the samiti but are yet to find a way.

The BJP had won 17 of the 32 seats in the panchayat samiti, and Trinamul the remaining 15. BJP leaders had shifted all its 17 winners to neighbouring Dhubri in party-ruled Assam. “We had plans to bring them here at the last moment, only after the administration announced the date for the formation of the board,” said a BJP insider.

On Monday, BJP leaders got information that Pratap’s father was “seriously ill”. “We were told the old man is insisting his son should be with him or he would not see a doctor. On humanitarian grounds, we informed Pratap. As he arrived on Tuesday (from Dhubri), some of us took him to his house in Chuniajhora tea estate,” said a local leader.

They left him there, asking him to return to Assam at the earliest. “Soon, Trinamul leaders met Pratap and convinced him to defect to Trinamul. We later realised it was a decoy. Pratap’s father, supposed to be seriously ill, was said to be roaming around, riding pillion on a motorcycle on Wednesday,” said Jayanta Roy, a BJP general secretary. Trinamul has denied the allegations.

BJP leaders tried to contact Pratap on Wednesday but failed. Sources said Trinamul would ask Pratap to file a complaint against BJP leaders for having “confined” him in Assam. With his defection, the BJP and Trinamul have been tied at 16 seats.

“In Alipurduar, the only panchayat samiti where the board has not been formed is Kumargram. That is because we secured a majority there,” said Ganga Prasad Sharma, the district BJP president.

In a near-simultaneous turn of events, the district administration on Wednesday announced that the panchayat samiti board would be formed on September 25.

Trinamul leaders claimed Pratap had joined their party on his own. “None of us went to his house. Instead, his family members contacted me and said Pratap wants to join Trinamul. All BJP winning members have realised only Trinamul can successfully carry out development,” Alipurduar Trinamul chief Mohon Sharma said.