After losing Uluberia and Siliguri municipalities, the Trinamool Congress has received a major blow, losing control of the Midnapore civic body following cross voting on a no-confidence motion moved by the CPM on Friday.

As a result, Trinamool’s Pranab Basu has lost the chairman’s post. A fresh election will soon take place.

Last year, the civic body was won by the Trinamool-Congress combine. In a total of 24 seats, the Trinamool had bagged 10, Congress four while the Left Front got nine seats. One seat went to an Independent.

On Friday, 14 members voted for the no-confidence motion moved by the CPM and the rest 10 members voted against it.

Speculation is rife that the four members who backed the CPM are from the Trinamool Congress, who were unhappy with the present chairman Pranab Basu.

Also, four Congress members might have voted against the Trinamool-led board. As it was a secret voting, it would not be possible to reveal the names of the members who “defected”, said sources.

Pranab Basu did not rule out the possibility of cross-voting from his own party. “I do not believe the Congress members voted against me. My own party members might have switched to the CPM camp secretly,” he said.

“It is shameful we have lost to the CPM even though we have the majority. It should be looked into,” said Nirmal Ghosh, president of the Congress district committee.

Unlike Midnapore, in Uluberia and Siliguri, the Congress had openly tied up with the Left Front for the formation of a Congress board.

A Congress leader in Kolkata said his party does not want such things to happen repeatedly. For this reason, the Congress has offered the Trinamool Congress district level alliance for the upcoming civic polls scheduled to be held in May this year.