Ranaghat, Nov. 5: Education minister Partha Chatterjee today reportedly told Trinamul leaders in Nadia that some members of the party's student wing were extorting money.

Sources said Chatterjee told the party leaders at a Vijaya get-together in Ranaghat that these Trinamul Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) members were becoming "an embarrassment for the party" and urged them to induct "good boys and fresh faces".

Asked after the meeting if he had made such statements, Chatterjee said: "I just told the party leaders that some of our student union members are catching the SFI's disease. I cautioned them against a culture that the SFI started during the Left regime."

The minister did not clarify what he meant by the "SFI's disease" and left the venue.

A Trinamul source, however, quoted Chatterjee as saying at the meeting: "I have information that student leaders are taking money. They are becoming an embarrassment for the party and the government." Last year, TMCP leader Tanmay Acharya was accused of taking money from students in the "cash-for-seats scam" at Bhaktabala BEd College in Nadia's Chapra. "There are many good boys and fresh faces who want to join the organisation. But they are not coming because of the presence of local musclemen," a Trinamul leader quoted Chatterjee as saying.

The TMCP president in Nadia, Ayan Dutta, said: "I have heard that the education minister has expressed concern at the role of a section of TMCP activists. We will follow his instructions and convey them to others so that the party and the government are not embarrassed."