Contrarily, other party branches were more readily enforcing persecution of the opposition. This was the case in Năsăud, where the Ploughmen's Front complained that overzealous PNP men were unwittingly alerting the PNȚ and PNL as to what lay in store for them. Father Burducea's unwavering support for the purge of anti-communists alienated the clergy, many of whom resented and mocked him; this matter contributed to his sacking. Seeing the BPD as an authoritarian instrument, members deserted in significant numbers during 1947, and some even became involved with a group of anti-communist partisans, formed by Gheorghe Arsenescu in Muscel County.