Unless CPM removed the Tata Motors factory from Singur within a year, the Bloc said it would make it very difficult for the government to set up new industries.

The ultimatum came from Ashok Ghosh, general secretary of the state unit of Bloc, at a rally held in Bajemelia village in Singur to protest against acquisition of agricultural land for industrialisation.

Apart from Ghosh, others who spoke at the well-attended rally, included minister for agricultural marketing Naren Dey, State Agricultural Marketeting Board chairman Naren Chatterjee.

In fact, except for the party flag, one could hardly tell it apart from the one held by the Trinamool Congress, with the leaders pouring vitriol on the CPM.

So charged was the atmosphere that when the microphone on the dias went off during Ghosh’s speech, some supporters shouted that it must be a conspiracy hatched by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Ghosh exhorted the state government to shift the Tata factory near Kalaikunda and return the land to Singur farmers.

“I got to see the affidavit filed on the case filed by the state government at the Calcutta High Court. I was stunned to see that it was different from what we were told at the Left Front meeting. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not tell us the truth it seems. In Singur, the land is very fertile. Let the government shift the Tata factory to some fallow land at a place like Kalaikunda,” Ghosh said.

Ghosh also alleged that veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu had now become the mask for Bhattacharjee. “Basu is playing second fiddle to Bhattacharjee on all issues. I want to ask Jyotibabu, has he become the mask of Buddhadebbabu?” Ghosh asked, amid thunderous applause of the audience.

Branding the state government as friend of the industrialists he also exhorted the state government to ban the entry of industrial houses like the Tatas and the Birlas and instead, let West Bengal-based industrialists to set up industries here.