Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his Bengal poll campaign on Sunday last, saying only BJP would ensure “ashol paribartan (real change)”, and attacked the Mamata Banerjee government of being just a reincarnation of the Left Front which had “helmed a rebirth of violence, corruption and attacks on democracy”.
In a speech peppered with Bengali phrases, the PM accused the Mamata government of being anti-farmer and anti-people, saying it was blocking all attempts by the Centre to help. He stressed on a “double-engine” thrust on development to end the state’s reluctance to provide Central benefits, promising voters that Bengal’s first BJP cabinet would ensure marginal farmers were not denied the benefits of the PM Kishan Samman Nidhi scheme.
Tying up Bengal’s love for football with BJP’s core ideology, he said Trinamool had committed several fouls in the last 10 years: misgovernance, attacks on the opposition, looting people’s money and attacks on faith. “People would soon show them the ‘Ram card’,” he said, warning people against “match-fixing” by Trinamool, Congress and the Left. “In Delhi, they speak behind curtains; they speak behind closed doors. They will now do political match-fixing. In Kerala, the Left and Congress have decided to loot the government after every five years.”
Talking about the 2011 Bengal polls, when Mamata had given the slogan of ‘paribartan’, Modi said: “Mamata Didi promised paribartan in Bengal; people trusted. Bangal mamata ki aas leke jee raha tha par dus saal use nirmamta mili. (People hoped for compassion but got heartlessness instead over the last decade). What Bengal got wasn’t the paribartan it hoped for but only a rebirth of the Left. That, too, with interest.
Development projects in Assam
As PM Narendra Modi arrived at Dhekiajuli town, about 150 km northwest of Guwahati, to unveil a slew of development projects worth over £1 billion in Assam on Sunday, he also paid tributes to as many as 15 martyrs of India’s freedom movement, whose stories of sacrifice have remained unrecognised and unheard of in the rest of the country for nearly eight decades. The PM said: “Today is a special day for me. Today I got the opportunity to pay respect to this historic land.
Poll-bound states get highways, big infra push
In West Bengal, where the BJP is aiming to unseat the ruling Trinamool Congress in elections later this year, £2.5 billion has been earmarked for road projects, including 675 km of highway works on the existing Kolkata-Siliguri road. In addition, freight corridor projects for the East Coast corridor from Kharagpur (West Bengal) to Vijayawada, and an West Corridor from Bhusaval-Nagpur (Maharashtra) to Kharagpur-Dankuni (in West Bengal) have also been proposed.
There is also new social security scheme with an outlay of £100 million for women employed in tea plantations in West Bengal and Assam, apart from 1,300 km of national highway projects worth £3.4 billion for the poll-bound north-eastern state. The road projects will enhance industrialisation and investments and the extension of social security benefits to gig and platform workers will benefit casual workers of the state, BJP West Bengal unit executive member Shishir Bajoria said.
"In all, the schemes, be it extending ESI to all workers or improving roads are in line with our party's promise to bring Sonar Bangla in the State. For the last many decades, the state has been left out of development… The Centre's focus is on laying the ground for development,” Bajoria said.
In Tamil Nadu, where the BJP will contest the elections in partnership with the ruling AIADMK, national highway works with a budget of £ 10 billion, including the Madurai-Kollam corridor and Chittoor-Thatchur corridor, have been proposed. In neighbouring Kerala, where the BJP is trying to gain a foothold in the upcoming elections, 1,100 km of highway works with an investment of £6.5 billion, including the Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor, have been proposed. The second phase of the Kochi Metro rail and Chennai Metro rail projects have also been proposed, apart from a sea-weed park and a fishing harbour for Tamil Nadu.
The BJP's immediate priority in Tamil Nadu has been to expand its clout in the state dominated by the two Dravidian parties so that it can mop up some seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The AIADMK finds itself firefighting anti-incumbency and now has to deal with twists and turns in the party as Jayalalithaa's close aide VK Sasikala is set to get active in the state politics. Sasikala was discharged from a Bengaluru hospital and returned to the state in a car bearing the AIADMK flag, something that analysts believe was a clear indication of tough times ahead for the AIADMK, as the current Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was propped up by Sasikala herself.
