Covering lost ground, district by district

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is on a roll. Ever since he started touring the districts on weekends from June 27 to put his finger on their socioeconomic and law-and-order pulse, there seems to be no stopping him. Thus while on June 27 he visited Nadia, the next day saw him at Hooghly. Last Sunday, he visited Murshidabad, while Bankura is on the itinerary for July 14. At this rate, he may soon finish the rounds of all 17 districts. However, the Trinamool Congress has been boycotting all the meetings held along the way, alleging that Bhattacharjee’s aim is merely to regain lost ground after the Marxists’ poll debacle in both the Lok Sabha as well as the municipal elections in the state.

Buddha’s AMU campaign succeeds

The Chief Minister lobbied tenaciously with the Central government for an Aligarh Muslim University campus in Murshidabad, so it was a time for celebration when Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee allocated Rs 25 crore for the same. Just a week ago, Buddha wrote to Mukherjee urging him to allocate funds and arrange for land for the campus from the project area of Farakka barrage. This was followed up with another reminder a few days later. Detractors, however, interpret the CM’s enthusiasm as a desperate attempt to make a dent in the Muslim vote-bank in Murshidabad, which, at 70 per cent, has one of the highest Muslim populations in the country.

Now, Assembly polls on Mamata’s agenda

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