Confident that the Left Front will win the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal with “a comfortable majority,” Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Wednesday that the electoral alliance between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress would have no consequences on the chances of the Left parties.
“We always knew that they [the Trinamool Congress and Congress] will form an electoral alliance. Our calculations did not depend on whether or not they united against us… Our aim is very clear — to obtain the support of the majority of the people in this State,” Mr. Bhattacharjee told journalists.
Assuring supporters of the Left parties that “the Trinamool Congress is not in any position to form a government” in West Bengal, Mr. Bhattacharjee was also critical of the situation of unrest and the encouragement anti-social elements got because of the Opposition's “impatience to come to power.”
Outlining the agenda of his government if it was returned to power, Mr. Bhattacharjee said there would be a greater emphasis on the industry, particularly on small and medium scale enterprises, to fulfil the main aim of generating more employment.
“Attempts were made to create an impression that the process of industrialisation in the State had come to a halt. But, with the investments that have come to the State over the last four years, there is no scope for such a perception.” He pointed out that West Bengal attracted investments worth about Rs. 8,500 crores in 2009 and more than Rs. 15,000 crores in 2010.
Would the automobile factory planned at the controversial site at Singur come up if the Left Front comes to power for the eighth time? “It will definitely happen,” Mr. Bhattacharjee asserted.
He also highlighted the Left Front's plans for the education and health sectors and providing roads, electricity and drinking water to more than 38,600 villages in the State.
Mr. Bhattacharjee said more attention would be paid to the “marginalised sections of society” which would include workers in the unorganised sector, women, scheduled castes, tribal communities and minorities.
On the “change” that the Trinamool Congress would bring, Mr. Bhattacharjee said the State would be run in the same manner as the Railways.
“Do they want to change the fact that 84 per cent of the land in the State is in the hands of the poor? Or the industrialisation of West Bengal? Or do they want to change that 99 per cent of the children in the State are enrolled in schools and being provided mid-day meals?” Mr. Bhattacharjee wondered.
He said the people in the State were observing how the Railways were functioning and the other six Ministers of the Trinamool Congress were “almost like non-performing assets of factories that have been shut down.”
