Singur, Aug. 26: Champdani in Hooghly. Belghoria in North 24-Parganas. Or Rajabazar in Calcutta.

Men from different parts of Bengal were milling around Mamata Banerjee’s dais, but not that many sons of the soil.

On the third day of the siege, Trinamul Congress supporters poured in from various areas, some as far away as Nadia, to add to the crowd that ebbed and peaked as the sun rose, blazed and finally sank behind the Tata Motors plant.

The local residents — mostly from Bajemelia, Gopalnagar or Rupnarayanpur — turned up only when the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and Mamata declared that she would “begin proceedings”. That was around 4pm.

Till then, it was mostly a set of performers rendering baul songs and trying to keep the crowd entertained.

“Aamra ei bar kaaj shuru korchhi,” Mamata announced, seeing the crowd gradually swell in front of the dais.

By then, members of the Trinamul-led trade unions at Angus Jute Mill in Bhadreswar and Dalhousie Jute Company at Champdani — both in Hooghly — had arrived.

They waved their flags vigorously before melting into the crowd that had been growing since 3pm, when a bus full of supporters from Sealdah arrived. They were preceded by a Burdwan team.

“There are some 15 of us and we hired two Maruti Omnis to reach here. Once the meeting is over, we will rush back,” said Asutosh Banerjee of Bidyanagar in Burdwan. “Our MLA from Nadanghat, Swapan Debnath, made all the arrangements,” the 27-year-old smiled. Behind him, a banner of the Belghoria Town Trinamul Congress fluttered, marking its members’ presence.

“Ora bolchhey lok nei. Ora jaane na aami ekaai eksho (They are saying the turnout is thin. They don’t know I am myself an army of 100 people),” Mamata thundered, desperate to prove a point to those who were concerned with the crowd.

Kajal Debnath clapped along with others from her group. In her late 30s, Kajal said she had arrived with a group from Ranaghat in Nadia.

“We were here on Sunday as well,” she beamed, holding on to an aged woman. “Today, we reached around 1pm.”

Like many, Kajal’s day was made when Mamata invited Tollywood actress Satabdi Roy to speak. The crowd had by then swelled to around 12,000 from a mere 30-40 at dawn.

The figure was 500 at 8am when some local residents turned up. At 8.30 tonight, the figure was nudging 1,000.

A local resident admitted that they usually came in the early morning or evening.

“It’s not that we are not here. But we generally turn up in the early mornings and in the evenings, when the heat subsides,” said Radheyshyam Maity of Gopalnagar. “The younger people have work to do and schools and colleges to attend,” he added.