West Bengal Assembly elections: In Singur, it's welfare schemes vs industry

In Singur, everyone is riding the industry plank in varying degrees. Banerjee, however, has her welfare schemes to rely on, and there are beneficiaries galore

The discontent of 2,000-odd land losers to Tata Motors’ Nano factory in Singur had become the centre of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s political campaign in 2008.

The rural hamlet — about 40 km from Kolkata — was split between those in favour of the “karkhana” or factory (tagged willing land losers) and those against (unwilling). Violent agitations had followed and then an indefinite siege that ultimately led the company to pull the plug on manufacturing its small car there.

Cut to 2021. Splinter groups from the “willing” and “unwilling” camps have galvanised under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the common