Despite Iorga's repeated efforts to enact the land reform on the coalition's own terms, the Vaida government was ordered to step down by King Ferdinand I, who assigned the premiership to Alexandru Averescu (March 1920). Internal divisions caused the PȚB to split weeks before the May elections. Averescu's People's Party (PP) extended an offer for merger. Inculeț accepted it, but was threatened by his colleagues with expulsion. On April 21, a PȚB Congress forced him to renounce his position as Minister for Bessarabia, which he had maintained under six consecutive regimes. A small faction, led by Sergiu Niță, broke out of the PȚB and joined Averescu. Dissatisfied with work in the opposition, Ciugureanu and his followers also separated and ran as a "Democratic Union Party of Bessarabia", but, failing to win any seats, went over to the PNL. Inculeț later claimed that he had sidelined Ciugureanu, whom he accused of carrying out "personal business" from within the party.