Hooghly, April 25: Skinny remains of the once colossal Hindustan Motors, the Nano catastrophe, an emaciated industrial scene, land struggle, political violence and the chasing memory of a Tapasi Malik are issues far too many for the wobbly Marxists to cope with in one go.
Yet the Left Front is putting up a brave front in Hooghly district that accounts for 18 Assembly seats after delimitation. In 2006 the Left Front had won 17 out of 19 seats. Two seats of Singur and Serampore went to the Trinamool Congress.
Apart from the land factor that hit the headlines in 2006, forcing Tata Motors to abort its Nano project at Singur, the Opposition Trinamool Congress has raised a host of other issues to pull the voters to its side.
Health and education are two major factors that could go against the Left Front. It is not that the district lacks in educational institutions. What ails Hooghly is the gradually falling standard of education. Trinamool district president Tapan Dasgupta alleges, “The private English medium schools are doing roaring business whereas the Government schools are faring badly. For many years no student of this district has secured a rank in the board examination.”
However, district CPI(M) leader Dibakar Das lists the Government achievements, saying the district today had “135 junior high schools, 2,993 primary schools, 141 higher secondary schools and 548 secondary schools. There are 11 ICSE schools. The district has technical colleges including engineering colleges, one dental college and one management college.” But the fact also is that almost 50 per cent of the primary schools have less then three teachers in each school.
Health is another area where the Trinamool has sought to pin down the Left. “The condition of the Government hospitals like the Serampore Walsh Hospital and the State General Hospitals at Chinsurah and Chandernagore is pitiable. While the private nursing homes are doing a roaring business Government hospitals are suffering on account of staff shortage. A racket run by the CPI(M)-run union has rendered the costly medical equipment unusable forcing the patients to get services from private centres,” Ashim Ruidas, a local at Chandernagore alleged.
While about a dozen industries have come up in the district a majority of the older industrial houses have either downed their shutters or are on the verge of closure.
Leading among them is Birla Group’s Hind Motors, the post-Independence symbol of India’s self-sustenance. The manufacturers of Ambassador car, who once employed about 22,000 employees engage a mere 2,500 workers today. While the falling market of Ambassador is obviously the bigger reason, the CPI(M)’s labour arm CITU is also held responsible for the retrenchment of 20,000 men. Apart from Hind Motors, the jute mills are also not doing well on account of the trade union’s highhandedness, Tapas Mukherjee, a local Trinamool leader complained.
Frequent power-cuts and poor roads are two major issues in the urban areas of Chinsurah, Chandernagore, Serampore, Bandel and Uttarpara. In fact poor roads and dwindling power was the main reason why the Left lost 11 out of 12 municipalities to the Trinamool Congress in the 2010 civic elections.
With the urban centres seldom being the Left Front’s forte, what seemed to do the Marxists in was their steadily eroding vote bank in the rural areas, post-Singur movement. Notwithstanding the fact that out of 12,500 farmers only 2,000 refused to part with their land for the Tata Motors plant in Singur, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee did well to play her cards to use the issue in her favour.
Becharam Manna, a the face of the movement in Singur and a Trinamool candidate conceded that the Government had nearly succeeded at Singur, but for the Nandigram police firing which pushed Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the defensive and helped Mamata Banerjee to revive a dying movement.
While in the State of West Bengal land issue and continuing violence are as inseparable as Siamese twins, the Assembly segments of Purshura, Khankul Goghat, Arambagh and Champdani saw continued clashes between the two groups, leading to more than 20 deaths. The CPI(M) interpreted violence in these areas in terms of Trinamool spreading its tentacles from the neighbouring places of Haripal and Dhanekhali, where it had consolidated its position.
Incidentally, all these Assembly segments, as also Pandua and Jangipara, are still Left strongholds from where the group expects to win. Out of the 18 seats the Front is expecting to win from at least 7 seats.
Other places where the Marxists are expecting a good show are Tarakeshwar from where former IPS officer Rachpal Singh is contesting, and Serampore Sadar.
——–PTI