The Trinamul Congress on Sunday alleged a political “conspiracy” between the National Investigation Agency and the BJP, involving secret meetings and bribery, to discomfit Bengal’s ruling party this general election.

It claimed the involvement of Union home minister Amit Shah and an NIA official allegedly close to him, questioned the Election Commission’s silence, and threatened to approach the Supreme Court.

The allegation came a day after an NIA team faced an attack from villagers in Bhupatinagar, East Midnapore, while picking up two local Trinamul functionaries in connection with a December 2022 bomb blast.

Mamata Banerjee’s party on Sunday said West Burdwan BJP leader Jitendra Tewari — a Trinamul turncoat — had held a secret meeting with NIA superintendent of police Dhan Ram Singh at the agency official’s New Town apartment on March 26.

It said Tewari handed Singh a list of Trinamul leaders and grassroots functionaries to be arrested by the agency from across the state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Tewari has denied the charges and threatened a defamation suit.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had herself first levelled such an allegation —though with fewer specifics — at an election rally in north Bengal on Friday, a day before the NIA raid and the mob attack.

On Sunday, her party claimed Singh was close to Shah and accused the home minister of masterminding Saturday’s fracas in Bhupatinagar.

“Everyone has seen what the NIA has done in Bhupatinagar. In addition to MPs, MLAs and councillors, they are now targeting booth-level leaders to destroy the level playing field,” Trinamul’s Kunal Ghosh said at a media conference on Sunday, hours ahead of a rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in north Bengal.

Ghosh added: “Our supreme leader too had flagged concerns over how the NIA was acting according to the instructions of BJP leaders.”

Ghosh, known as the mouthpiece of Mamata’s nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee, said his party had proof of Tewari’s meeting with Singh “at around 6.30pm” on March 26.

“We are sharing a copy of the visitors’ book that proves this. The BJP leader handed over a list of people — including Trinamul booth-level workers — whom they want the NIA to arrest. There has been an exchange of money, and we demand an investigation,” he said.

Ghosh said the party would petition the Supreme Court against this “terrible, deep-rooted conspiracy” against Trinamul.

State finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said a 10-member Trinamul delegation will visit the Election Commission and demand a probe.

Mamata and her party have for years accused the Modi government of misusing central investigative agencies to corner its political opponents across the country.

However, the latest accusation appears more serious with its charges of a political conspiracy as opposed to administrative misuse — with secret meetings, bribery, the alleged involvement of senior government leaders and deliberate provocation for political gain ahead of an election.

Soon after Ghosh addressed the media, Abhishek issued a statement on X alleging an “alliance” between the NIA and the BJP and deploring the poll panel’s silence.

“Experience the unfolding alliance between the @NIA_India and @BJP4Bengal, orchestrating conspiracies against Trinamool leaders amid the Model Code of Conduct,” the Diamond Harbour MP posted, writing several operative words in block letters.

“While this collusion persists, the ECI stands by, conspicuously silent, neglecting its duty to ensure fair play.”

Abhishek also cited a party statement that said: “Would it be any stretch to suggest that HM @AmitShah was the mastermind behind the Bhupatinagar incident given that Dhan Ram Singh has always been his close aide?”

While Opposition parties have repeatedly accused the CBI, ED and income-tax authorities of functioning virtually as frontal organisations of the BJP, such charges against the NIA are rare.

Later in the day, during his road show in Ghatal, Abhishek said: “Today, we have exposed the NIA. Ten days after elections were notified, BJP leader Jitendra Tewari held a 52-minute meeting with NIA SP Dhan Ram Singh.”

He added: “The meeting was held on March 26, and from March 27, the NIA started sending notices to people of East and West Midnapore. He was asked to file false cases against us.”

Referring to Tewari’s threat of a defamation suit, he said: “Let him send the notices so that we release the CCTV footage we have in our hands…. We are people who speak in terms of facts and figures. I know how to answer the BJP in a language it will understand.”

Trinamul demanded an FIR against Singh, the examination of his mobile phone locations and an analysis of the call details to ascertain which political leaders were called up when Tewari was allegedly closeted with Singh at his residence.

Trinamul also demanded Singh’s immediate removal from Bengal and from all the NIA cases related to the state.

“If anyone tries to deny this (Tewari visiting the NIA official), we will release CCTV footage which shows the BJP leader visiting the NIA,” Ghosh said.

“Deputations are given by email or on official premises. Why did a BJP leader visit an NIA official’s house with a suspicious white packet and leave without it?”

Finance minister Bhattacharya questioned the timing of the NIA’s Bhupatinagar raid, asking why the agency had waited till April 2024 to act on an incident of December 2022.

“Why now, just before the polls? What was the urgency? This, in itself, is suspicious,” she said.

In the evening, she held a rally along with Ghosh at Bhupatinagar, where the duo tore into the agency and the BJP establishment.

Tewari said he would quit politics if the allegations were proven. If not, he would file a defamation suit against his former party.