Mamata Banerjee asks the crowd to be silent in Singur. Picture by Amit Datta

Singur, Aug. 24: As the sun set over the straggly industrial skyline of Singur, Mamata Banerjee rose to her feet with peace on her lips and the power to paralyse on call.

“Our agitation will continue unless the 400 acres forcibly taken away from farmers is returned to them,” the Trinamul leader declared from a podium around 100 metres from the Tata Motors small-car factory. “I am here and our agitation will continue.”

With her torrent came an early evening shower, the sky over Singur streaked in dark clouds.

By then, the halogen lights inside the Tata plant had been turned on. But the future of the project looked dim as Mamata threatened to continue her siege unless the Tata project was trimmed to 600 acres.

Appearing unfazed by the pullout threat from the Tatas, the Trinamul Congress chief dared the group to leave Bengal. “If other states are inviting you, please go there.… But can you leave with Tata Centre? Can you leave with Tata Indicom?” she roared as the 40,000-strong crowd around podium No. 7 started thinning.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh echoed her. “If others are calling, please go. West Bengal will say, goodbye, ta-ta,” Singh said, drawing a huge round of applause.

In sharp contrast to the bustle outside, the factory, where over 3,500 people are at work on any given day, wore a deserted look. “Sunday is a day off. Some work takes place in the morning shift, but today there is hardly any activity inside,” said a police officer.

Tomorrow, will it be possible for the workers to go inside the plant? Tata Motors officials did not want to answer the questions, though Mamata insisted that no one would be stopped from going to work.

She also preferred to label her movement “a satyagraha”. “This is a peaceful demonstration. We want peace…. No one should even look at the Tata plant.”

The promise of peace was a recurring theme during the six-hour session, which started at 2.15pm, soon after she reached the dharna site. But the siege’s potential to disrupt was on full display by the evening. As the numbers grew around the podium, traffic on Durgapur Expressway, which links Calcutta and Burdwan, came to a halt with police closing stretches of the road. Trinamul has erected 21 podiums along the expressway.

After ending the day’s proceedings, Mamata asked the 2,000-odd supporters who had stayed back for the night to lie down on the road. “No one will dare come near you,” she told them as they prepared khichudi for dinner.

People sprawled on the road, the police stopped vehicles at the three toll plazas at Asansol, Panagarh and Shaktigarh on National Highway 2. The expressway is a part of the highway.

Thousands of vehicles bound for Calcutta were being held up till late tonight. Vehicles coming towards Asansol from the north will have to be diverted through Purulia, Bankura, Midnapore and Howrah to reach Calcutta, which means the distance will double to 400km.

Those stranded at Panagarh will have to take a detour through Birbhum, Murshidabad, Nadia and North 24-Parganas, adding 150km to the usual journey to Calcutta. Vehicles stuck at Shaktigarh will have to turn back about 15km to Burdwan and take GT Road to reach Howrah and Calcutta, logging an additional 50km.

Carrying Trinamul flags, supporters trickled in since early morning as a police force of over 3,000 stood on guard both inside and outside the plant. While police sources claimed that only 5,000 people had come from the affected villages in Singur, Trinamul leaders said most were from North and South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore districts.

Mamata sought to scotch the government’s reported attempt to offer alternative plots to landlosers. “There is alternative land for all the ancillary units just opposite the Tata factory, which CPM-backed promoters have bought in anticipation of huge gains. We can identify such tracts and our panchayat will help transfer them to the government, where the ancillary units can be set up,” she said.