“We had visited Loba village and when we asked people there if the police had opened fire on that day, no one denied the fact,” said Bhattacharya. He said no one there was against industrialisation but they had suggested the government should resort to newer methods of mining which would not affect farmland.

He referred to the Chief Minister as the “friend of Singur and Nandigram who has turned a foe at Loba”.

He said there was hardly anyone left in the village — a Trinamool stronghold — who still supported the party. “I have asked the three new ministers of our party — A H Khan Chowdhury, Deepa Dasmunsi and Adhir Chowdhury — to visit the place,” he said and added that Commerce Minister Partha Chatterjee’s allegation that Congressmen were responsible for the trouble there, was baseless. “In fact, our men helped the injured reach the hospital,” he said.

Speaking on the Haldia issue, Bhattacharya said the problem there remains and far from being solved. “We will start a Haldia Chalo movement on November 20,” he said.

She accused the Mamata Banerjee government of picking up from where the CPM had left in ruining the state. “If an investigation is made it would be found out that TMC and CPM have joined forces to fight against Congress at places in the state where Congress has a stronghold,” she said.