Calcutta, Aug. 28: Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamul Congress colleagues last night decided they should give the government a “jolt”, sources said.

“Our plan is to give the CPM government a jolt so that our movement gains momentum,” said Purnendu Bose, a leader of the Trinamul-backed Save Farmland Committee.

“However, as responsible leaders of the Singur movement, we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that workers can come and leave the Tata factory,” he said.

But the workers were intimidated through the day which culminated in a blockade of vehicles ferrying employees out of the factory.

On August 24, the first day of the siege, Trinamul chief Mamata had said: “This is a peaceful demonstration. We want peace…. No one should even look at the Tata plant.”

But after last night’s meeting at the dharna site, the strategy seems to have changed.

According to a Trinamul MLA and close Mamata aide, the meeting decided that something needed to be done to keep the siege alive and kicking.

The protesters seem to have become restless with no perceptible change in the government’s position on the return of 400 acres, said a Save Farmland Committee leader.

“Threatening workers or beating them up would give life to the movement. These things happen during an agitation. Besides, the government and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee need a jolt. Otherwise what’s the use of this movement?” the leader asked.

The Trinamul MLA said: “Initially, we had planned a peaceful protest because we thought the government would announce return of land. But that didn’t happen. Then we stepped up the agitation by blocking Durgapur Expressway but didn’t go on the offensive. Last night, we decided on the dharna dais that threats to some Tata Motors workers may force them to stay away from the site.”

A preview of the “jolt” had already come yesterday morning when two workers at the Tata Motors small-car project site were heckled and slapped. Trinamul denied its hand in the incidents.

According to the party leadership, Mamata had thought that the Durgapur Expressway blockade — she had told her supporters to squat on the road — would “put pressure’’ on the government. She thought that with so many trucks getting stuck, the state would be compelled to act.

“But the strategy did not work as the government sat tight, refused to use force and tried to build public opinion against our leader,” said a Trinamul MLA from East Midnapore, who has been at the dharna site since the first day.

“We need to devise ways to carry the agitation forward. A threat to workers is an old CPM ploy to exert pressure on the administration and we have borrowed that,” the MLA said.

Trinamul MLA Saugata Roy didn’t want to comment on the assaults on Tata Motors workers.

“The communists had set trams on fire for a one-paisa rise in fares and it was the CPM government that killed Ananda Margis in this state. It’s a battle of nerves, and that has to be sustained,” Roy said.