Rabin Sahana, 54, a “retired” farmer on Friday accompanied Srijan Bhattacharya, the CPM’s “youthful bet” for Singur seat when he filed his nomination on Friday at the Chandernagore subdivisional office.

Rabin, who now works as a salesperson for a medical goods store, is one of many farmers who had willingly sold off land for the proposed Tata Motors small-car factory in 2006.

For Srijan, Rabin represents the hope of industrialisation and employment that his party wishes to usher into the state if voted to power.

“Rabinbabu had willingly given up his land for industrialisation in 2006. Today, all people of Singur want jobs and industrialisation. Rabinbabu’s presence (while filing nomination papers) was significant for me,” Srijan told this paper.

In 2006, Rabin and his family, including his uncle and brothers, sold some 0.67 acres of land for the Tata plant. The family got around Rs 4.5 lakh, which according to Rabin “was a fair deal back then”.

“I’m not a CPM party member, but I wanted the factory to come up in Singur. I still believe that for the sake of our future generations, our leaders need to focus on jobs and industries,” Rabin said. “Trinamul leaders took on the mantle of launching a farmer’s movement in Singur, but it was basically their ploy to get power,” he added.

In 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the entire land be returned to erstwhile owners. Rabin got his land, but couldn’t sell it as it is “no longer cultivable”, he said.

Srijan added: “I don’t want to revisit the past as such. I just want to take the people of Singur towards a better future and hence I need people like Rabinbabu.”