The Trinamul Congress on Monday warned its trade union against extorting money from factories at Haldia in East Midnapore in the name of a public meeting which will be addressed by the party’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at the industrial township on May 28.

“If you indulge in a competition of extorting money in the name of bringing lakhs of people to the meeting, it will be a disaster,” Jyotirmoy Kar, the chairman of the Haldia Development Authority and former state minister, said while speaking at a preparatory meeting of the INTTUC, which is the trade union of the ruling party, in Haldia on Monday.

Kar made the statement in the presence of three cabinet ministers — Moloy Ghatak, Soumen Mahapatra and Akhil Giri. Five other MLAs from the East Midnapore district, INTTUC’s state president Ritabrata Banerjee and at least 500 party workers and leaders from 25 blocks and five civic bodies of the district were present at the meeting.

Ghatak followed from what Kar said and “banned” any sort of extortion in the name of the May 28 public meeting. “You cannot extort money on the pretext of this meeting. Not upfront, not by other means... in no way,” the state law minister said.

Banerjee will hold an indoor meeting of members of the trade union on May 27 and a public meeting the following day. According to sources in Trinamul, this was an attempt by the Diamond Harbour MP to regain the ground it had lost in the industrial township. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Haldia voted for the BJP’s Tapasi Mondal to defeat Trinamul’s Swapan Naskar.

Monday’s diktat has not gone down with many Trinamul leaders and public representatives present at the meeting. Ghatak himself has set a target of at least one lakh people for the May 28 event. According to many of the leaders who participated in Monday’s meeting, at least 200 buses would be required to fulfill such a target.

“How can we manage such an expense if we don’t ask for funds from private companies?” a leader asked. “Abhishek’s rally in Haldia must be on a grand scale,” the leader added.

In January this year, Tapas Maity, the Haldia unit president of the INTTUC, and three others were arrested on charges of extortion. Maity had been accused of extorting money in the name of giving jobs at factories in Haldia.

Trinamul has repeatedly issued warnings against high-handed trade unionism at Haldia and Maity was suspended from his post. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly announced her zero-tolerance policy against such acts of extortion.