Trinamul leaders in Jalpaiguri filed a complaint with the district magistrate’s office on Friday, alleging Alipurduar BJP MP and new Union minister John Barla has encroached on a government plot for business purposes.

“The MP has occupied government land at Chamurchi More in Banarhat (under Dhupguri block of Jalpaiguri district) and is building a commercial-cum-residential complex at the site. We have submitted detailed documents to the administration and have sought necessary steps,” said K.K. Kalyani, the district Trinamul chief of Jalpaiguri.

Barla, the junior minority affairs minister, is not in north Bengal and has not commented on the allegation. Despite phone calls and WhatsApp messages from this paper, he could not be contacted.

Barla shot into the limelight recently by demanding separate statehood or Union Territory status for north Bengal, which left leaders of the Bengal BJP in an awkward position.

The Jalpaiguri district administration has initiated action on the Trinamul complaint. DM Moumita Godara Basu has instructed the district land and land reforms department to check the status of the plot at Chamurchi More and submit a report to her.

Trinamul insiders said their preliminary findings revealed the plot was government land. “Even so, we want the administration to come out with full details. If our allegation is proved correct, a district-wide movement would be launched against the MP,” said a party leader. A Trinamul leader in Alipurduar town, Dipto Chatterjee, said on Saturday that once the MP is back, they would wave black flags and shout slogans against him to protest his divisive statehood call. “We don’t want him in Alipurduar. He is a man with a separatist mindset.”

The Telegraph has checked the affidavit he had filed along with his nomination in 2019 when he had contested in the Lok Sabha polls.

In the affidavit, it was stated that his wife owns 6.11 acres of agricultural land that she had bought in 2014.

“The affidavit shows he and his wife did not own any non-agricultural land till the day he filed the affidavit. Buildings can’t come up on agricultural land unless a formal conversion of the land’s status is done. There is always a chance that he bought the land (in Trinamul’s allegation) afterwards or taken it on lease but his silence is unusual,” said a political observer.

Bapi Goswami, the Jalpaiguri district BJP chief, accused Trinamul of political vendetta. “As he is now included in the Union cabinet, Trinamul is coming up with such charges. If the allegations are found false, we will take legal steps against Trinamul,”he said.

Bhusan Modak, convener of Alipurduar district BJP, said: “Only the MP can reply to it (the allegation). As far our party is concerned, we will only comment on it if a state government official and not a political party makes such an allegation,” he said.