West Bengal assembly polls: Singur cries foul as old founds resurface

The same hot-bed of land rights movement against Tata Nano factory that helped TMC overthrow CPI(M)'s over three-decade rule ,can now come back to bite the ruling govt

Constituency: Singur

Almost 10 years after the Singur land movement, which drove the Tata Motors out of the state and voted the Left Front government out of power, is still the only political issue in this area.

Read more from our special coverage on "SINGUR"

• Which way will Singur sway?
• Tatas Nano remains central issue in Singur even after 8 years

Singur was on the boil between 2006 and 2008 after the then Left Front government acquired 997.11 acres of land for setting up the small car factory.

There are 2,20,000 voters in Singur of which land losers are 13,000 while another 5,000 people are in the periphery of the factory site.

Date: April 30

Sitting MLA: Rabindranath Bhattacharya (TMC)
 

Rabindranath Bhattacharya

Party: TMC

Apart from being a political analyst, he is also the present Minister for statistics and programme implementation in the state and head of the political science department at Burdwan University.

Strength: He has been the MLA three times and proved himself as credible.

Weakness: The failure of Didi’s government to keep the promise of returning the land acquired for the Tata Motors factory from unwilling farmers remains one of the biggest embarrassments for the ruling party.

Also, rivalry between Bhattacharya and Becharam Manna, MLA from the adjoining Haripal constituency and prominent leader of the Singur movement, may pose problems for the ruling party’s prospect.

Rabin Deb

Party: CPI(M)

Rabin Deb is a MLA and State secretariat and was member of the Legislative Assembly from Ballygunge constituency (1992–2006), where he was Chief Govt. Whip (2003-2006) of the Government of West Bengal.

Strengths: Deb has assured willing land givers that if he wins, he would ensure the Nano car project is revived and insisted that the Trinamool chairperson has cheated the people by promising to return the land the infamous controversy can turn votes in his favour.

Weakness: As he does not hail from Singur, people seem to be reluctant in relying upon him.
 

Who will win? Rabindranath Bhattacharya is likely to win with reduced margin. 

However, in the 2014 Lok Sabh poll, the Trinamool had led by over 30,000 votes from the assembly segment. But the BJP got a surprising 24,000-plus votes and the Congress a mere 3,681. The extent to which the BJP manages to hold on to its vote bank, and whether some of it gets transferred to the Left-Congress or the Trinamool, may become a crucial factor in determining the final outcome this time.