There is one project — the extension of the Howrah suburban section into Garden Reach-Kidderpore areas that will touch a small part of my Lok Sabha constituency,” Mamata Banerjee smiled as she took a swipe at Lalu Prasad Yadav in her Railway Budget speech this afternoon.

There was no mistaking the understatement — the Budget this year sought to address a far bigger constituency than her Kolkata South. An analysis of the projects she announced makes it clear how her eyes are fixed firmly on the 2011 Prize, the Assembly elections. For, her agenda captures a grand sweep across West Bengal, from the Darjeeling foothills to the sea resort of Digha, from Belpahari to Lalgarh and from Nandigram to Singur. Also, pushing for public-private partnership, PSU takeover and upgrade of stations, she signalled that if she drove Tata’s Nano out, she was now opening the doors to industry.

The geographical spread of her largesse touches those places where her recent political struggle has catapulted her to power. She has also looked at nursing areas where the Trinamool Congress and its Congress ally did not do so well, as in North Bengal. So New Jalpaiguri got a major boost in the Budget proposals as well places like Darjeeling and Alipurduar.

She even invoked her catchline Maa, Maati, Manush (Mother, Land and the People) that she coined at the height of the violence in Nandigram. “I think members will be very happy to know how the facility of unreserved ticketing system can be reached to Maa, Maati Manush,” Banerjee said. Under the Maa, Maati Manush scheme, passengers can now buy computerized tickets from nearly 5000 post offices in cities and towns. She announced a project to link Singur and Nandigram in East Midnapore as also Belpahari and Lalgarh in West Midnapore that has been Ground Zero of the ongoing Maoist-Left stand-off.

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