Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she would stage a sit-in outside Pratichi, the ancestral home of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, if Visva-Bharati authorities tried to “bulldoze” the property.

“What have they (the Centre) been doing while Amartya Sen is being attacked every day? I have seen the audacity, they (Visva-Bharati) will bulldoze Amartya Sen’s house. If they bulldoze Amartya Sen’s house, I will sit there. I will fight against that,” Mamata told a news conference at Nabanna, the state secretariat.

“Let me see whether they bulldoze Amartya Sen’s house, which they claim. If they do it, I will be the first person going there and will sit there. I want to see who is more powerful, bulldozer or humanity?” she added.

Visva-Bharati has asked Sen to return 13 decimals of land, which, according to them, is under his “unauthorised” occupation. On April 19, Visva-Bharati threatened to evict the economist from the 13 decimals if he did not vacate within May 6.

Against this backdrop, speculation about a bulldozer operation, a political tool in the heartland, has gathered momentum. A senior Visva-Bharati faculty member said: “As the entire issue is political and a platform like Visva-Bharati is being used by the BJP to harass Sen, they are planning to stage a drama in front of Pratichi in the name of taking possession of the land. We heard that they are planning to hire a bulldozer too to highlight the issue.”

The academic expressed the hope that the chief minister’s resolve would make the varsity authorities “think twice before staging such a drama”.

Senior district officials said Visva-Bharati was not in a position so far to take possession of the land as an executive magistrate has ordered status quo on the plot.

“There is a round-the-clock vigil by police. As long as the status quo order is in place, no unauthorised entry would be allowed,” said a district official.

Visva-Bharati’s acting public relations officer Mahua Banerjee did not comment when asked about the statement of the chief minister.

A varsity official said on condition of anonymity: “The 13 decimals of land illegally occupied by Sen is located at the northwest corner of the Pratichi plot and there is no construction. We have to break the boundary fencing made of iron netting, if we want to take possession of the land. So, there should not be a need to bring a bulldozer to take possession.”

“However, I can’t guarantee there won’t be any such development in the future,” he added.

Mamata met the Nobel laureate in Santiniketan in January and handed over documents, which, she said, showed that the entire 138 decimals belonged to the Sen family.

“Our chief minister is with Professor Sen from Day One. We are really happy with what she said today. We want to thank her,” said Gitikantha Majumder, who takes care of Pratichi in the absence of Sen.