Admitting that some of his administrative decisions regarding the land acquisition were faulty and it proved costly, ultimately leading to the poll debacles, former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee finally owned up the moral responsibility for the defeats.
“We had failed to take lessons from the Singur and Nandigram fiascoes and the land acquisition drive was to some extent done hastily. We should have been more cautious in acquiring land for industry. This alienated the farmers away from our party and the minorty section in the rual belts also got disgruntled,” Mr Bhattacharjee added. He was speaking during the 23rd CPI(M) state conference in the city on Friday.
However, the delegates present at the conference felt that the party needs a credible face to boost the sagging morale of the party cadres and also to woo back the people and that person is: Mr Bhattacharjee. It needs to be seen now whether this politburo member who skipped quite few politburo meetings due to his failing health, is ready to take the challenge or not.
Meanwhile, the district leadership at the conference expressed their “hardships” under the new regime. Delegates from Bankura pointed out that the elected CPI(M) gram pradhans are being “coerced” to sign important financial proposals on rural development despite their reluctance.
“A number of delegates complained that the block development officers (BDOs) are often taking sides and pursuing the projects, ignoring the pradhan. They fear that the Trinamul Congress might put the panchayat pradhans in trouble by implicating them in corruption because the pradhans do not have any control over the expenditure,” party central committee member Mohammed Salim said.