OUTWARDLY calm and serene, whether or not this lush green area along the National Highway-2, popularly called Delhi highway, becomes another turning point in the political history of West Bengal or not only time will tell. But a visit to this almost entirely rural constituency in Hooghly district makes one feel that come April 30 another turn, at least in the history of this area, may be in the offing here. Even as the idea of industrialisation, as represented by Tata’s aborted Singur Nano project, persists in popular/electoral discussions, the tide of popular opinion seems to be turning against Mamata and TMC, the actors seen as mainly being responsible for blocking the march towards industrialisation. CPI(M) candidate from this traditionally non-Left constituency Rabin Deb, who symbolically began his election campaign in a Tata Nano car, while addressing an impressive gathering in Khanpukur on April 24, promised to create job opportunity for local youths who were even given training in Pune for recruitment in Nano factory. Media colleagues, who have been to this place earlier, said that this kind of meeting and presence of Red flags everywhere itself represent a huge change, as in this fief of TMC strongman and minister Becharam Manna, no Red flags were allowed in the past five years and Panchayat and Lok Sabha elections saw massive loot of vote. Beside Aadhir Ranjan from the Congress, former chief secretary of West Bengal Ardhendu Sen also addressed the gathering and said there was no progress on the question of returning of lands, as promised by the Mamata government, was because of this government’s failure to do the needful. Though the Mamata government is giving Rs 2,000 per month to land losers, this dole is not enough to assuage the people’s sense of betrayal. Her helicopter visit to Singur just two days earlier was greeted with derision, as she promised to fight for fifty years in courts but give the land to unwilling peasants, provided people keep her in power. Her visit has also not helped TMC minister Rabindranath Chattopadhyay who is engaged in a battle for supremacy with Manna, considered much more loyal to Mamata. Chattopadhyay had at one stage actually resigned accusing Manna of running extortion rackets under the chief minister’s aashirvad (blessings). CPI(M) General Secretary SitaramYechury, as the main speaker at the meeting, mocked at the fact that Mamata also could not find time to come to Singur even once in five years of her rule though she kept on making promises of returning land to “unwilling peasants”. He said five years ago a kind of ‘Badlao’ (change) began from Singur and this time around another ‘Badlao’ will begin from here. May 19 when the votes are counted, Bengal will see a new ‘suryoday’ (sunrise) which will have impact on the entire country and bring back Bengal to the path of development, peace and democracy. (END) Rural Bengal Reverberates with ‘Trinamool Hatao, Bangla Bachao’ Call Rajendra Sharma HAROA, a small town in the rural heartland, and in fact the entire region, is reverberating with the call of ‘Trinamool Hatao, Bangla Bachao’ (Remove Trinamool, Save Bengal). This slogan has an added resonance in this area in North 24-Parganas district which has a long history of peasant struggles going back to the days of Tebhaga Movement and has seen repeated attacks on Left activists and rights of small peasants, including recapture of thousands of acres of land by landlords and equally fierce resistance led by the Left Kisan movement. In the ongoing Assembly elections, it is in this Haroa that a CPI(M) worker became the first martyr. Nurul Islam was brutally attacked by TMC goons while campaigning on April 20. He succumbed to his injuries later.. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Surjya Kanta Mishra, addressing a large gathering in Haroa town on April 22 underlined the fact that it is people's will and ‘manusher jot’ (people's unity) that is taking on TMC’s rule of terror in these elections. Exuding confidence of victory, he cautioned the people against fierce attacks by a desperate TMC. Martyrdom of Nurul Islam and three other comrades is a grim reminder of that. Referring to motorcycle-borne TMC goons who are trying to create terror, he said it is only united resistance of people that will foil these attempts to loot votes as neither police nor the Election Commission can be relied upon for the same. He said “Didi Bhai and Modi Bhai” has not only entered into a secret deal but they are also one in their anti-democratic nature. As an example of the match fixing, he pointed out how the Modi government has saved TMC both from Saradha scam and Narada sting operation. He was canvassing for two CPI(M) candidates -- Imtiaz Ahmad from Haroa and Dinabandhu Mandol from Minakhan. Later that evening, Mishra addressed an impressive public meeting on Joypur Jain Institution Ground in support of CPI(M) candidates Nepaldeb Bhattacharya from Rajarhat-Gopalpur and Narendranath Chatterjee from Rajarhat-Newtown. (END)