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Are voters of Bengal ready to vote for development?

Kolkata is currently experiencing an atmosphere of fear and restlessness. When you stand at a street corner tea stall and ask a local Bangbandhu about the forthcoming Legislative Assembly elections, he will apprehend that the state will witness extreme violence before and during the elections. An atmosphere of fear and terror can be created everywhere in Bengal.

One can estimate the mood of entire state just looking at Kolkata which is like a big mirror of the entire state of Bengal.The current situation is surely disappointing when the country is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the great leader of the country born in Bengal Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. The Legislative Assembly elections for West Bengal will conclude during May when the term of current Legislative Assembly is ending.

Why Bengal experiencing backwardness

When one evaluate the 10 years of Mamta Banerjee rule in Bengal, one can easily conclude that a magnificent state of India continue to lag behind. It faced street violence during Mamta rule quite often.The persons sloganeering the names of Maryaada Purushottam Shri Ram were also arrested and put behind bars. When Mamta Banerjee led Trinamool Congress Party(TMC) came to power in 2011 a hope of expectation aroused that after the end of 35 years of misrule of left front the wheel of development will again rotate in the state which has been an industrial state like Maharastra since much before Independence. But, this did not happen. Anarchism and disorder on a massive scale started spreading all over the state. Now the forward steps of BJP in the state is a tocsin for Mamta Banerjee. She threw in the towel. Now she has realised that 2021 Legislative Assembly elections will prove the last nail in the coffin for TMC. Let’s recall a few months ago, Mamta Banerjee was even dreaming to become the Prime Minister of India. But currently she is disliked by the majority of people even in her own state. This was clearly seen in last Lok Sabha elections of 2019. At that time  the state was cursed with Trinamool sponsored violence but still the results were in the favour of BJP. BJP choked the neck of TMC.

Out of total 42 Lok Sabha seats BJP secured 18. While in 2014 LS elections BJP managed to win only 2 seats in West Bengal. This change happened because people of the state has become fed up with the Mamta Banerjee’s governance which was considered by majority of people a dictatorship of an arrogant woman. The development work was completely halted during these ten years . It is unfortunate that Mamta didi was only busy in appeasement of Muslims. She thought that she will become PM by reproaching PM Modi and BJP.

Insensitive towards the farmers

The most serious issue is that Mamta Banerjee is highly insensitive towards the welfare of the farmers of the state. 18 thousand crores have been directly deposited in the bank accounts of more than 9 crore farmers of the country were promptly and directly benefitted by this scheme of Central government. However, it is sad that more than 70 lakh farmers of West Bengal were denied this benefit. Lakhs of farmers had also applied online for this scheme from Bengal but Mamta government is not verifying the documents and retuning to the Government of India. And, without the verification of the the documents by the respective state government poor farmers will not receive money. Undoubtedly, West Bengal got inefficient governments one after other. Their political ideologies pushed the state towards backwardness. Now the general public is recalling the governance of Jyoti Basu and calling his governance also was better than the present government.

It should be admitted that  a tremendous atmosphere of public awareness has been created in favour of the BJP. All the general people standing for law and order has gathered in support of BJP, which is becoming stronger day by day and at the same time the graph of Mamta is witnessing a steep downward trend. Now it is feared that the violence does not get repeated which the state faced during last Lok Sabha elections. During last Lok Sabha elections when the entire country was having more or less peaceful elections,West Bengal the land of Maharshi Arvindo, Swami Vivekanand, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and Satyajit Ray was burning due to the ruling party sponsored violence. The voters of the state are suffering because of the wrong policies and programs of TMC. That’s why the people of Bengal are having expectations with the BJP. The people of Bengal have been badly cheated and squeezed by Congress and left parties for over 70 years.

Actually Mamta Banerjee has always been following dual policies. From Darjeeling to 24-Pargana, districts of  West Bengal were restless. Mamta Banerjee not even listened to the innocent and simple people of Darjeeling. The residents of Darjeeling came on road to protest for their rights. But, Mamta Banerjee only favoured the people of 24 Pargana. You must be remembering that last year in 24 Pargana, after getting annoyed by a Facebook post, the hooligans of a particular community created ruckus. Violent riots took place. But the police of the Mamta Banerjee government behaved softly towards the riotous. Just because of the soft attitude of the Mamta Banerjee her state became a hub for the Muslim bigots. She is openly following her Muslim appeasement policy. An imam of Kolkata, a favourite of Mamta Banerjee always speak venomously against Narendra Modi. Could he do all these things without asking or without approval of Mamta didi?

Now let’s see if left parties and Congress form coalition in this Legislative assembly elections. The leader of CPI(M) Saifuddin Chowdhary is claiming that both the parties will create a balance in seat sharing. Means the parties engaged in fighting and alleging each other in past several years are now coming together for fighting elections together. Expecting to get success at few places. However Chowdhary is saying that TMC will lose power and BJP will also not secure majority. The claims of left parties are highly laughable. They are being rejected everywhere by the voters. But still see their confidence. During last Lok Sabha elections left parties failed to secure any seat in the state and Congress only won two seats. But what it takes to claim? The left leaders like Sitaram Yechuri, D. Raja and Vrinda Karat are only seen in Seminar circuit. But after expressing their thought here they thought themselves great. When did the last time these people fought for labourers and farmers? They do not even remember this. However, very few days are left for West Bengal elections. This time election results will prove that the people of the state is standing with the government commited to develop the state. The people of West Bengal have already gave this strong and clear message in the last Lok Sabha elections.

(Writer is senior editor, columnist and former MP)

R.K. Sinha

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