Development, TMC’s trump card to win in Rajarhat-Gopalpur

Comprehensive development ranging from improvement of roads to installation of street lights that have changed the ambiance of the area in the past four years has put Purnendu Bose two steps ahead of his competitors in the foray of election.

Besides bringing in development, Bose has also worked to strengthen the organisation of the party in the area which was once known as the bastion of CPI(M). By undertaking the development projects, Bose had brought a swing as people had started supporting the Trinamool Congress.

Completion of the flyover on VIP Road and projects taken up to widen the Rajarhat Road has come up as a boon for Trinamool Congress in addition to the steps undertaken to solve the problem of the scarcity of safe drinking water in the area.

Supply of sufficient drinking water had been a long standing demand of the people in the region. Plans were chalked and steps were taken to solve the problem by setting up a water treatment plant. But the Trinamool Congress government had gone a step ahead and decided to connect the water treatment plant with pipeline from river Hooghly to assure sufficient flow of water for purification.

The step of pumping in water from river Hooghly to solve the problem of water crisis in Rajarhat Gopalpur area has been termed as a milestone by the local people. Bireswar Mishra, a 48-year-old resident of the area, said: “It would be like dream coming true. Until and unless a government is determined to help people by solving their long standing problem, such initiatives are quite impossible.”

Besides solving the problem of water crisis, steps were taken to ensure congestion free fast movement of vehicles in the highly populated urban area. Traffic congestion on VIP Road has now become a history and the residents of the area don’t need to suffer due to regular traffic jams in the rush hours.

At the same time people are witnessing the on-going work to widen the Rajarhat Road from Jora Mandir to Chinar Park. “No one had dreamt of that the road will be widened after solving the encroachment problem. It is really a good job done by the Trinamool Congress government,” said Manisha Sharma, a college goer and resident of the area.

It may be mentioned that the project to widen the road from Jora Mandir to Chinar Park was taken up at a cost of Rs 18 crore. Later, decision was taken to widen the road till Bishnupur and additional Rs 86 crore was sanctioned.

The sitting MLA from the constituency, who was also the state’s Labour minister soon after the Trinamool Congress government came in and later took up the charge of Agriculture Minister, had taken up various measures for the development projects besides those funded by the state government. Such projects include setting up of bus stands and water logging problem on a small stretch of a road with the help of Corporate Social Responsibility of big business houses in the area. People also appreciated the move of engaging private players for development of the area.

Besides the development work, Trinamool Congress’s organisation is strong enough in the area that hosts 16 wards of Bidhannagar Municipality and 8 wards of South Dum Dum Municipality. CPI(M)’s Nepaldeb Bhattacharya, who had lost from Bhatpara Assembly constituency in 2011 polls by 44,385 votes, need to give a tough fight to take away the Assembly seat from Bose.

In the last 2014 Lok Sabha election, Trinamool Congress had received 20,345 votes more than that of the combined votes of Congress and CPI(M). BJP’s vote percentage from the Assembly constituency had increased to 27.71 per cent in the Lok Sabha election compared that of 2.55 per cent in the last Assembly polls in the state. 

According to political analysts, BJP is not expected to get such a huge percentage of votes from here this time. Some of the electorates who had cast their votes in the favour of BJP last time, will be pressing the button on EVM machine for NOTA and a major percentage of the rest of the votes will go for Trinamool Congress for the development work that it had undertaken in the past four and a half years.