Violence erupted in the town of Bongaon in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday over a no-confidence motion tabled by rebel councillors who have shifted their loyalties from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Last week, 12 councillors of the civic body had approached the Calcutta High Court alleging that the TMC had been reduced to being a minority in the municipal board. Bongaon municipality has 22 councillors and any party to control the board needs support of 12 councillors.

A lot of drama ensued during the day when the no-confidence motion was scheduled to be taken up for vote. The councillors loyal to the BJP claimed they were not allowed inside the municipal building. In the afternoon, when they managed to get inside, they were locked inside a room, they alleged. A large number of BJP supporters had gathered outside the municipality and the police had to fire tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. An altercation between the BJP supporters and police continued for a while.

The councillors loyal to the BJP said that they have won the vote while those supported by the TMC said that since the no-confidence motion was defeated they will remain in power. Joyprakash Majumdar, the vice-president of the State unit of the BJP said that despite a court order the police and TMC were trying all means to defeat the BJP. “What started in the rural polls is continuing in the civic bodies,” he said. TMC leader and State’s Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said that the attempts to win trust vote in Bongaon municipality had failed.

After the Lok Sabha polls, the civic bodies are the new political battle ground for both the TMC and BJP. Over the past few weeks, civic bodies in North 24 Paraganas have witnessed defections of councillors as well as their return to the TMC. Elections to a majority of municipalities in the State are scheduled in 2020.