Bengal Assembly Elections 2021: Strategy to play development card to woo Siliguri voters

Trinamul leaders are highlighting how Mamata 'brought peace to Darjeeling' and how the new board for Terai and the Dooars will expedite infrastructure work

Asok Bhattacharya (right) campaigns in Siliguri on Friday.: Passang Yolmo

Bireswar Banerjee   |   TT  |  Siliguri   |   20.03.21 : The Left as well as Trinamul have drawn up the strategy to play the development card to woo voters of Siliguri — a key Assembly seat in north Bengal.

The Left camp is underscoring the achievements and plans of veteran CPM leader Asok Bhattacharya, a former minister who is contesting from Siliguri for the seventh time.

Leaders of Mamata Banerjee’s party, on the other hand, are highlighting development initiatives by her government in and around the city since 2011 while emphasising on the party’s recent announcement of forming a special development board for Terai and the Dooars.

On Friday, poll allies Left and Congress leaders here released a four-page pamphlet — the first in any north Bengal district — with details of development work during the Left Front era. Bhattacharya had been instrumental in the execution of these projects, the document states, as well as the plans which Siliguri MLA Bhattacharya will take up if re-elected, including better traffic movement, river conservation and sports infrastructure.

Trinamul leaders are highlighting how Mamata “brought peace to Darjeeling” and how the new development board for Terai and the Dooars will expedite infrastructure work. Ranjan Sarkar, the Darjeeling district (plains) president of Trinamul, said they would highlight the “failures” of both the Left and the BJP.

Trinamul will emphasise on the fact that the Left-run civic board (that was headed by Bhattacharya) allegedly failed to meet peoples’ aspirations, he said.

“We will also point out that despite having MPs of the BJP for past 12 years (who have been elected thrice from Darjeeling parliamentary seat since 2009), no important project has been taken up by the Centre for Siliguri or for the district as a whole,” added the Trinamul leader.