The Congress on Monday got a shot in the arm as it wrested Jhalda municipality in Purulia from Trinamul when two Independent councillors voted in favour of a no-confidence motion that it had brought against Bengal’s ruling party at the civic body.

The Congress, which has five councillors at the 12-member Jhalda civic body, got the support of two Independents — Shila Chatterjee and Somnath Karmakar — and crossed the half-way mark to wrest the board. Trinamul’s five councillors did not turn up for the voting, which was held under unprecedented security. A large police contingent led by one additional superintendent of police guarded the municipality headquarters since Monday morning and Section 144 of the CrPC was clamped across Jhalda town since Sunday night.

The five Congress councillors and the two Independents together went to the office of chairman Suresh Agarwal around 12.30pm for the proceedings, but he was not present. After waiting for an hour for the Trinamul councillors, including the chairman and the vice-chairman, the assistant executive officer of the municipality, Bidhan Pandey, started the process.

“The seven councillors signed in favour of the notrust motion against the Trinamul-run board and the chairman,” said a source at the civic body. Later, Congress workers led by the party’s Purulia district president, Nepal Mahato, brought out a victory rally in the town with the photograph of slain Congress councillor Tapan Kandu.

“It is the victory of the residents of Jhalda, who wanted to see Tapan Kandu as the chairman of the civic body. But Trinamul-hired goons had killed him to grab the civic body from us. Today, his soul will rest in peace,” said Mahato. He said the Trinamul councillors hadn’t turned up for the voting apprehending their impending defeat.

“First, they lost the legal battle and today they lost in the voting.” Purulia district Trinamul president Soumen Belthoria said he had sought a report from the party’s leaders in Jhalda on the development. In the civic polls held in February, Trinamul and the Congress had won five councillors each. Two seats had gone to Independents. While both Trinamul and the Congress were trying to form the board, Congress councillor Tapan Kandu was murdered on March 2. Trinamul formed the board in April with the support of the two Independents.

The murder sparked widespread law and order problems in the town, prompting the police to constitute a special investigating team to probe the murder. Tapan’s wife Purnima, who is also a Congress councillor, approached Calcutta High Court demanding a CBI probe and accused Trinamul of murdering her husband to grab the civic body.

The court transferred the probe to the CBI and seven persons were altogether arrested. Both the state police and the CBI ruled out any larger political motive behind the murder and concluded that it was the fallout of a family dispute between the deceased and his cousin Deepak Kandu.

In the bypoll in ward 2, which fell vacant after Tapan’s murder, the Congress won. The arithmetic changed in the Congress’s favour when the two Independents pledged support to the party. The Congress had on October 13 sent a letter signed by the seven councillors seeking the no-confidence against the board.

The change of guard at the civic body, a political observer said, comes as an embarrassment for Trinamul ahead of rural polls scheduled for next year. “This will encourage Congress workers in Bengal to take on Trinamul in the upcoming political battles,” said state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

CPM state secretary Mohammad Salim said the change of guard in Jhalda was a setback for Trinamul. “We had been in support of the Congress in its battle from the beginning and this is the victory of democracy. Trinamul had murdered a Congress councillor to grab the board,” he said.