Kolkata: Knowing fully well that issues like “infiltrators” and “Hindutva” may have little impact on the voters of Bengal, the state BJP seemed to have changed its stance ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections, and switched to employment promises and industrialization. Speculation was doing the rounds.
While the ruling Trinamool Congress sees it as paradoxical that the Bengal unit of the BJP was talking about employment when the Centre has stopped providing funds under the key schemes, including MGNREGA, Jal Jeevan Mission, Housing, etc.
The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, claimed that Bengal ranked among the top three states for investment intentions in 2024, with Rs 39,133 crore already processed and Rs 4.4 lakh crore worth of proposals secured in BGBS 2025.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya has recently emphasized his party’s focus areas, including employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth, and suggestions from industrialists to boost investment.
He also promised that if the BJP comes to power in the upcoming polls, it will lay emphasis on employment.
Citing data, a ruling party leader said in the last 6 years, as many as 44,040 new companies were incorporated, with the state’s industrial sector growing at 7.3 per cent, beating the national average of 6.2 per cent, it added further.
Opposition Leader in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who had so long continued to strongly focus on Hindutva issues, using them as a primary tool to challenge the Mamata Banerjee-led government, was now speaking about filling up vacancies. During the recently concluded Assembly session, Adhikari, outside the House, told reporters that if the BJP comes to power in the forthcoming Assembly polls, they will recruit 10 lakh vacant posts.
Senior Trinamool Congress leader Chandrima Bhattacharya, who is also the Finance Minister of the state, recently claimed that over 1.72 crore people have been lifted out of poverty, while unemployment among those aged 15 years and above has declined by nearly 45.65 per cent between 2017–18 and 2023–24.
Around nine crore people are covered under the Khadya Sathi scheme, while 2.45 crore families have been enrolled under Swasthya Sathi, covering almost the entire population of the state, she added. For landless agricultural labourers, annual financial assistance of Rs 4,000 has been announced in the state budget, Bhattacharya added.