Optimism and despair visible in the last phase of West Bengal polls

Nikhil Mandal could be 40-45 though he is not quite sure. But that business from his makeshift tea stall will grow in leaps and bounds in the coming days he is certain of.

It’s been about a year since Mandal set up shop at the Bengal Silicon Valley tech hub in New Town Rajarhat. The stall is strategically positioned in front of the upcoming 40-acre Reliance IT Park, where construction is in full swing.

There are scores of such stalls that dot the area where in a radius of 3-4 km construction is happening at several campuses -- from LTIMindtree to Nxtra and CtrlS.

The Bengal Silicon Valley tech hub, spread over 200 acres on the northern outskirts of Kolkata, is the Mamata Banerjee government’s showcase project. About 43 companies have taken up space here -- from Adani (51.75 acres) to TCS (20 acres), NTT, apart from LTIMindtree, Nxtra, and a host of data centre companies.

In the adjoining area around the hub, the 50-acre Infosys campus looks ready to go. A stone’s throw away, ITC Infotech’s 17-acre mixed use development project, ITC Green Centre, is nearing completion.

“The speed and advancement with which work is going on is testimony to the fact that we are serious and moving in the right direction to ensure that as much employment as possible can be generated from here,” West Bengal Information Technology and Electronics Minister Babul Supriyo said.

Rajarhat is part of the Barasat Lok Sabha constituency in North 24 Parganas district.

Brain drain

Supriyo says Mamata didi is keen to stop the brain drain from West Bengal. “With the kind of multinationals setting up shop in the tech hub, we hope to achieve it.”

“I would invite the youngsters to go there and see what awaits them in the near future.”

But a resident in a housing society in Kolkata Dakshin asks: “Where are the youngsters? The more ambitious youngsters have left the city for want of better opportunities.”

Abhirup Sarkar, former professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), says: “Lack of big industry is an issue with a section of the middle and upper class, but that is a very small section of the population.”

Nine constituencies go to vote in West Bengal in the last lap on June 1.
 

Political narrative

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) chief spokesperson in Bengal, Samik Bhattacharya, points to the flight of capital. “There is no new investment in West Bengal. We are a consumption-oriented state right now.”

But Bhattacharya concedes the political debate has centred around corruption and restoration of democracy.

The CPI(M)’s main focus has been employment and corruption, apart from democracy restoration.

Urban complexities

Variations in demographic composition, candidate profile, the anti-minority narrative, and underemployment -- many complexities will be at play in the final phase of the West Bengal elections, says political analyst Sabysachi Basu Ray Chaudhury.

In Posta Bazar, a sub-mart for perishable commodities in Burrabazar, it becomes apparent.

Laxmikanta Shaw of Hari Om Traders is glued to a live streaming of a speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his phone.

“We have heard both Didi (Mamata Banerjee) and Modiji the past few weeks. Now, we will sit together and decide who to vote for,” he says.

Burrabazar is one of the oldest and largest wholesale markets in the country. It is part of the Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha seat and the traders here are mostly non-Bengali.

The business, most traders say, has been hugely impacted since lockdown and the increasing popularity of online platforms. But these are unlikely to be determining factors in the poll outcome. Sectarian feelings here are strong.

Here (Kolkata Uttar), the Trinamool’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay is eyeing a fourth term from the seat. He is pitted against Tapas Roy, who crossed over to the BJP from Trinamool earlier in the year.