BANGAON: Tension prevailed in Bangaon in the north 24 Parganas district on Wednesday after a clash between supporters of ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP Tuesday following a dispute over a trust vote for control of the town municipality.
Though prohibitive orders under Section 144 CrPC clamped on Tuesday were withdrawn Wednesday, police personnel were deployed at the office of the 22-member civic body to avert any further clash.
"The situation is under control and there is police posting. But Section 144 has been withdrawn," police said.
The saffron party took out a protest rally here during the day over the incident.
The BJP and the Trinamool Congress had blamed each other for the violence which started after two saffron party councillors were allegedly stopped from participating in the voting in the trust vote on Tuesday.
The BJP claimed it had wrested the civic body from the TMC, which rubbished it.
Organising a rally here, local BJP leaders accused the TMC of "indulging the violence with support of police" and alleged the party councillors were "disallowed deliberetaly from entering the municipality office" for the trust vote.
The Chairman of the municipality Sankar Adya along with TMC councillors came to the office Wednesday and appealed all councillors to work for the people of the town.
"There are many works and projects which have been held up. I appeal all the councillors including those who had moved the no-confidence motion. The trust vote was conducted within the limits of existing rules and regulation. Councillors who were present during the meeting had shown their support on me," Adya said.
Once a no-confidence move is introduced, no such motion cannot be introduced within six months, he claimed.
The TMC had clear majority in the municipality with 19 councillors till about fortnight ago, when 14 of them crossed over to BJP.
The CPI(M) and the Congress have one councilor each.
Three of the councillors who had defected to the BJP had returned to the TMC fold and a woman councillor of the party had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that two BJP councillors had tried to abduct her.
The two accused BJP councillors - Himadri Mondal and Kartik Mondal - claimed that they had secured anticipatory bail in the case.
They were, however, unable to produce the original copy of the order when asked for by the police, which was deployed in view of the simmering tension, before allowing them to enter the municipality for the trust vote.
This had led a clash between the BJP and the TMC supporters, the latest flashpoint between the rivals after results of the general elections in May end.