Around 400 BJP workers, including some elected panchayat members, joined Trinamul in Cooch Behar’s Dinhata-II block on Wednesday and said they were upset with the party’s NRC thrust that has caused “panic” among people.

The group of 400 included some office bearers of the party. Bishnubrata Burman, the district chief of Trinamul Youth Congress, played a key role in getting the group on board, said sources. Some popular leaders like Tapan Burman and Swapan Kumar Roy were among those joined Trinamul.

“We have toiled for months and years to strengthen the BJP’s base in the block and across Cooch Behar district. But ever since the BJP leaders started speaking on NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Bill, people are feeling confused,” said Tapan Burman, who was an executive committee member of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in the district.

“There are many families in Cooch Behar who are worried over the future of their children and relatives who stay in Assam and have not made it to the final list of NRC. We have realised that people are aggrieved and panicked as BJP leaders are insistent that NRC would be introduced in Bengal. That is why we have decided to join Trinamul,” Tapan Burman added.

Ever since the final NRC was published in Assam in August, people in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar — the two districts of Bengal that share borders with the neighbouring state — are upset. The exercise has left many Cooch Behar residents, who now stay in Assam, on the edge, the leaders have pointed out.

“It is unfortunate that the BJP leaders sitting in Calcutta and Delhi have not yet perceived the ground reality. People who had voted BJP in large are now asking voting the party meant inviting NRC trouble. We have no answers for them as every day some state or central leader is asserting that CAB and NRC would be implemented in the state. That is why we find it better to join Trinamul as the party has taken a clear stand on NRC,” said Swapan Kumar Roy, another BJP leader of the block.

Trinamul leaders predicted more such defections. “Most BJP leaders and workers in Cooch Behar are in dilemma as they have witnessed the consequences people have faced in Assam for NRC. Unlike state and central leaders, these people work at the grassroots and have realised the problem. Many more are in contact with us and we hope they will join Trinamul soon,” said Bishnubrata.

BJP leaders rejected the NRC factor.

“After the Lok Sabha polls, many Trinamul workers had joined the BJP in Cooch Behar. It seems they wanted to operate in the BJP in like they did in Trinamul. Now that their interests have not been met, they are walking out. I do not think NRC is the reason behind anybody’s decision to leave the BJP and join Trinamul,” said BJP north Bengal observer and state general secretary Raju Banerjee.

Additional Reporting by Sandip Chowdhury in Calcutta