Rafiza Bibi, 30, a Trinamul panchayat member in Murshidabad's Madhukul, defected to the Congress on Thursday.

The Congress-Left alliance now has a majority in the panchayat and intends to form the board on August 10.

While political defection is now common in Bengal, Opposition members usually join the ruling Trinamul. Rafiza's decision bucks the trend.

Madhukul panchayat has 16 seats, eight of which were won by Trinamul, seven by the Congress and one by the Left. After Rafiza's decision, the Congress-Left alliance now has nine candidates.

"No one forced me to make this decision. It is my choice," Rafiza, accompanied by husband Taijul Islam, 35, a Trinamul worker, in Behrampore where she received the Congress party flag from former MLA Manoj Chakraborty.

Her father Saidul Khan, 56, alleged his daughter and son-in-law were kidnapped. He filed an FIR with Domkal police.

Asked to react to her father's allegations, Rafiza said: "I live with my husband. He is here with me. I don't live with my father. How will he know?"

Apurba Sarkar, a Trinamul MLA and the chairman of the party's Murshidabad organisational district, said the anti-defection law will be executed against Rafiza.

"We will take necessary steps the anti-defection law allows us against her," he said.

Congress leader Chakraborty said no one was willing to stay with Trinamul anymore.

"They won eight seats but are hiding their members. Why? Because most are willing to defect to the Congress," he claimed.

Sources believe that before August 10, the day the Madhukul panchayat board is to be formed, Trinamul will try to prevent the Left-Congress alliance from coming to power.