Alipurduar, July 13: In a jolt to the ruling party, six CPM leaders walked out of the party’s Jalpaiguri unit today, taking along 100 party workers.

Not even a month after the civic polls in Alipurduar, factionalism is taking a toll on the CPM.

The secretary of Ward No. 8 branch committee Sovon Deb, vice-president of district committee of All Bengal Primary Teachers’ Association (ABPTA), Indubhusan Acherjee, president of district committee of Nirman Karmi Samity Subash Kar Choudhury and party workers Bijoy Saha, Totan Deb and Prabir Acherjee have already sent their resignations to the CPM local committee secretary Anuj Kanti Mitra.

Mitra, however, denied receiving any resignation letters.

Asked to give a reason, Deb said: “We decided to quit after the learnt that the party had decided to expel us for not working for the official nominee. This disheartened us. The party is not disciplined and we think persons like us should not be members of such an organisation.”

Dismissing the allegations, he said: “We had worked for the Front candidates in Ward No. 8 and 9 and worked really hard. Leaflets were distributed urging people to vote for the Front candidates.”

“Our resignations are bound to make a dent in the support base of the party here,” he added confidently.

Quizzed on whether they were planning to join any party, he said: “We have not yet decided.”

Acherjee and Kar Choudhury denied any comments on the issue.

Jiban Dutta, a member of the CPM’s district committee, said he had heard about the matter but it was finally up to the members to decide whether they wanted to stay or quit.

“We are looking into the matter. At present, I am not in a position to say anything,” he said.

A member of the CPM zonal committee, however, said there was sufficient evidence to prove that those leaving the party had worked against the Front candidates in the civic polls.

The Congress won 10 out of 20 seats in the June 22 municipal elections while the CPM and its allies won 6.

The CPM had fielded candidates in 10 wards, the RSP in 8 and Forward Bloc in 2.

The Congress had alleged before the civic polls that the CPM had put up “ghost candidates” in Wards No. 8 and 9 where the official candidate was from the Forward Bloc.

After battling each other in the panchayat elections, the Front allies had vowed to fight a united battle gained against the Opposition in the civic polls.

Last time, the BJP-Trinamul-Congress mahajot had won 12 of 20 seats in Alipurduar.