CPM picks up Singur as attack anthem

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee addresses the rally at the Brigade
Parade Ground on Sunday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Barun Ghosh and Anindya Sengupta, TT, Calcutta, Dec. 27: The CPM today promised that factories would hum in Singur if the party was voted back to power, signalling that its campaign for the Assembly elections next summer would focus on Trinamul's poor track record on industry.

"Amra okhaney factory abar chalu kortey parbo. Shekhan theke dhowan orate parbo (We will be able to restart factories there, get smoke to billow from there)," Surjya Kanta Mishra told a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground this afternoon that the CPM described as the biggest since its 2011 defeat.

The party put the turnout at "over 8 lakh" while police estimated that it was around 4.5 lakh. The presence of youths and their active participation - they were raising slogans and cheering the speakers - was the key takeaway today, party leaders said.

If voted to power, the Left government's priority would be to create jobs for "lakhs of people" across the state - from Nayachar in East Midnapore to Raghunathpur in Purulia, Mishra said.

"An ordinance was hurriedly brought to return land to unwilling farmers in Singur after they (Trinamul) came to power.... But nothing has been done so far," he taunted.

Mishra, the CPM state secretary, is expected to lead the party's election campaign.

The thrust on industry is significant because a section in the party had earlier blamed the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government's hurry to acquire land for the Tata Nano project in Singur for the 2011 rout.

Today, Bhattacharjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose and politburo member Mohammad Salim harped on the Trinamul government's failure to attract industry.

" Aamader state-er bhobishyat bhayankar (Our state's future is alarming). There is no industry, no employment for youths," the former chief minister said.

"A string of suicides is taking place across the state but the government is busy celebrating festivals."

Salim alleged that companies that had shown interest in the state during "Buddhada's tenure" were leaving in haste. This government's faulty policies and extortion by syndicates were to blame, he said.

In what appeared an attempt to woo back minority votes, the CPM leaders highlighted what they described as the "tacit understanding" between the Prime Minister and the Bengal chief minister.

Without naming either Narendra Modi or Mamata, Biman Bose said: " Dadabhai-Didibhaihave joined hands to compromise with communal forces. So the time has come to be cautious against this danger."

Bose picked up from where party general secretary Sitaram Yechury had left off yesterday while addressing a news conference at the Alimuddin Street headquarters of the CPM.

"There is match-fixing between the BJP and Trinamul as they need each other. While Trinamul needs the BJP to escape from the CBI probing the Saradha scam, the BJP needs Trinamul in the Rajya Sabha to get several bills passed," Yechury had said.