Nine BJP members out of 10 of gram panchayat under Dinhata Assembly seat, part of the Cooch Behar parliamentary constituency represented by BJP MP Nishit Pramanik, joined Trinamul on Sunday.

Like Pramanik, all the 10 members of Vetaguri-1 gram panchayat were formerly in Trinamul. They defected to the BJP after Pramanik won the Lok Sabha elections from Cooch Behar as a candidate from the saffron camp in 2019.

Pramanik had also won the recent Assembly elections from Dinhata, defeating Trinamul’s Udayan Guha by a mere 57 votes.

Many believe that BJP’s order to Pramanik to vacate his Dinhata MLA seat and retain his Lok Sabha seat might have prompted the turncoats to join Trinamul.

Now that a by-election will be held for Dinhata, the development is indicative that Trinamul has started gaining lost ground.

“Out of the 10 members, nine have joined Trinamul from Vetaguri-1 gram panchayat. Prabhat Das is the only member not to join us and we are also not keen on taking him back,” said Guha.

Das happens to be Pramanik’s father-in-law.

Sources said Vetaguri-1 was under Trinamul’s control after the 2018 rural elections. But things changed after Pramanik’s Lok Sabha victory.

“In 2019, just before Lok Sabha elections, Pramanik was expelled from Trinamul for anti-party activities. He then contested on a BJP ticket and won the Cooch Behar seat,” said an observer. “All 10 members of the panchayat, including his father-in-law, decided to join the BJP then. Now that Trinamul has swept the Assembly polls in Bengal, nine joined the ruling party.”’

Among Cooch Behar’s 128 gram panchayats, only three are with the BJP now.