Singur, Sept. 12: Rabindranath Bhattacharya, the Trinamul minister who had played a key role in the anti-land acquisition movement in Singur, was today allegedly denied an invite to a party-organised farmers' convention in the area.

The role played by Bhattacharya, the Singur MLA and statistics and programme implementation minister, was, however, acknowledged by MP Saugata Roy during his speech at the event.

Some Trinamul sources said that had Roy not mentioned Bhattacharya, the controversy over his absence from the programme could have been avoided.

"We were sitting at Trinamul Bhavan sometime in 2006 when it was flashed on television screens that some villagers were demonstrating in front of a team of Tata officials in Singur," Roy told the convention, the first such event organised by Trinamul.

"On reaching the spot, we came to know that Rabinbabu was among the protesters along with Becharam Manna (now the junior agriculture minister). The rest is history."

A local Trinamul politician in Singur said several local leaders were disappointed that Bhattacharya had not been invited.

"Bhattacharya has been staying away from party programmes for quite some time. Had Saugatada not mentioned him, the controversy could have been avoided," the politician said.

Bhattacharya, 84, said he had not been invited.

"Perhaps those at the helm did not think it necessary to invite me. How can I attend a programme to which I was not invited? In politics, you may find yourself unacceptable sometimes," the retired headmaster said.

Manna, the main organiser of today's convention, refused comment when asked why the Singur MLA had not been called to the programme.

Trinamul sources said that relations between the two ministers had soured in the past few months because of Bhattacharya's absence from several Trinamul programmes.

"Bhattacharya does not attend our programmes. This may be a reason why he was not invited today," a Trinamul politician close to Manna said.

Manik Das, a Trinamul zilla parishad member in Hooghly, said it had been "unjust" to keep Bhattacharya out of the programme. "He was one of the faces of the party during the Singur agitation. It was unjust to leave him out of the event," he said.

Mahadeb Das, another activist who played a role in the agitation against the Tata Nano plant, said it was "regrettable" that those leading the party were "forgetting the people who led the Singur movement".