Kolkata, Mar 27 (PTI) The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government has pushed West Bengal into a "debt trap" by distributing doles and funding festivals to win over the electorate instead of creating job opportunities,
alleged CPI(M)'s lone MP from the state, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.
In an interview with PTI, he claimed "funds for these doles are being borrowed from the market", turning West Bengal into one of the country's top debt-stressed states, and it was the people who would have to bear the burden of repaying the dues.
The Rajya Sabha MP, who is also a noted lawyer, hoped the people realise that ultimately it was they who were the losers.
According to West Bengal's interim Budget for the financial year 2026-27, the state's outstanding debt is projected to be more than Rs 8.15 lakh crore. The outstanding debt for the 2025-26 fiscal, according to revised data, was Rs 7.62 lakh crore.
The CPI(M) has fielded Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya from the Jadavpur Assembly seat in southeast Kolkata. The seat was held by former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya from 1987 to 2011.
The TMC government is providing Rs 1,500 monthly to general caste women and Rs 1,700 to those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribe communities under the 'Lakshmir Bhandar' scheme, and Rs 1,500 each month to unemployed youth under the Banglar Yuva-Sathi scheme, apart from honorariums to imams, muezzins and purohits.
Bhattacharya said, "These are destroying the state's basic economic structure."
About Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee having accused the erstwhile Left Front dispensation of leaving the state under a debt burden of Rs 2 lakh crore when it lost power in 2011, the CPI(M) leader pointed out that this debt was accrued since 1947.
"It was no debt at all if you take into account that the government had invested money in bettering education and health infrastructure," he said.
Accusing the TMC dispensation of "pushing the state into a debt trap" by allegedly spending money on non-productive purposes such as advertisements, festivals, and giving doles to purohits and imams, the Left leader said, "These are unconstitutional."
Bhattacharya alleged that both the BJP and the TMC have been practising faith-based politics and asserted that he has been consistently fighting the "binary" being created by the two outfits over religious issues.
"The BJP is strongly in favour of the Hindu religion. Mamata Banerjee is also equally in favour of the Hindu religion, but she wants to sugarcoat it by giving some dole or benefits to other communities," the CPI(M) candidate from Jadavpur said.
Pointing out that Durga Puja has been celebrated in West Bengal for ages, he said, except for infrastructural support, the organisers never thought of seeking financial assistance from the government.
"But now, Mamata Banerjee is paying money directly to the puja organisers. The BJP has followed the same practice in Odisha after coming to power there," Bhattacharya said.
He claimed that the RSS' agenda was being "cunningly implemented" by the Mamata Banerjee dispensation in West Bengal.
Asked what that agenda was, the CPI(M) leader said, "Pursuing a mix of religion and politics where ultimately religion gets dominance."
The lawyer-politician, who was the advocate general of Left-ruled Tripura from 1998 to 2003, alleged that corruption has crept into every aspect of West Bengal's administrative function, including education and health.
"For the first time in the history of constitutional democracy, particularly in West Bengal, the entire administration is being used for corruption," Bhattacharya alleged.
He has fought several important cases against the TMC dispensation, including those such as illegal school job appointments and payment of dearness allowance to state government employees.
"If people are conscious of their basic rights and do not think corruption is part of life, they will vote against TMC. But if they think corruption is a part of life, I don't know what will happen," the outgoing CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP, whose tenure ends on April 5, said.
Asked about the law-and-order situation in the state the TMC has been ruling for the past 15 years, Bhattacharya said, "The less said, the better. There is no law and order here."
Bhattacharya, a former mayor of Kolkata, alleged that people looking to lodge a police complaint against anyone associated with the TMC are facing intimidation and are being asked to settle the matters bilaterally.
Exuding confidence that the young voters will support the Left Front candidates, he said, "I find the educated young generation totally disillusioned with the TMC's false promises."
The Left Front had drawn a blank in the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal.
Bhattacharya said the young generation has realised that they do not get a fair chance in pursuing higher education.
"There is no job in the state, and the engineering colleges, which came up during the Left Front's rule and used to see a rush for admissions, are now running dry due to a lack of employment opportunities," he claimed.
"The youth of West Bengal is literally fleeing the state, some with better options and the rest with cheap remuneration."
Listing out his priorities for this election, he said, "My prime issue will be to restore the glorious past of West Bengal... a secular democratic principle with no religious bias."
Bhattacharya said his one-point agenda is that politics should be completely secular while alleging that the BJP and the TMC are "anti-secular". PTI AMR NSD
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