Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will visit Kolkata in the coming week to “meet potential investors and showcase the business opportunities in her State”.
According to a press statement, Ms. Raje will lead a delegation comprising ministers and bureaucrats.
The visit is planned to explore investment possibilities from Kolkata in the ‘Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit’ scheduled in Jaipur on November 19 and 20. Besides big industrial houses and representatives of Chamber of Commerce, many mid-level businessmen from Marwari community – who were originally from Rajasthan – are expected to take part in the Summit.
The Marwari community of Kolkata is considered the “economic elite” in the city and capable of pulling huge investments. While many financially influential Marwaris have set up huge, non-branded industries in Kolkata and eastern India, most of them have limited investment in Rajasthan.
Ms Raje’s visit is interpreted as one to woo the city’s Marwari community. Moreover, Rajasthan Government’s recent labour reforms, which enables companies to lay off up to 300 workers without Government’s approval, may attract more business communities.
If such a flight of capital takes place, it would perhaps emerge as an electoral issue in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bengal. Even if very limited capital flies to Rajasthan, Ms Banerjee will have to explain to the electors why the Marwaris, who made Bengal their home, are investing in a BJP-led State when Bengal is severely cash strapped.
