Keeping eyes on poll, CPIM puts development projects of fast track

KOLKATA: With an eye on the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections scheduled in calender 2010, the ruling CPIM, which is now running the civic body, is leaving no stone unturned to wrap up several pending development projects.

The CPIM���s bid to expedite pending projects comes after the ruling Marxists ecently lost 13 of the 16 municipalities to the TMC-Congress combine. Elections to these civic bodies were held last month and the ruling Left Front under CPIM���s control bagged only three municipalities.

Another reason why the CPM is jittery is because it lost the KMC elections to Trinamool in 1999. Mamata Banerjee���s party had wrested a major electoral success in 1999 by defeating the CPIM in the KMC polls. This was also significant for Trinamool Congress as the party had experienced a major electoral victory just two years after its formation in 1997.

CPIM���s Kolkata district committee (CDC), which controls the party functioning in the city, recently held a meeting of all the Left Front councillors to instruct them to work hard to complete all pending projects by early 2010 to frustrate the opposition Trinamool Congress��� move to run their campaign highlighting the Left���s poor performance.

The CDC leaders had also picked up a number of key development projects run by the KMC with financial support from the Centre. Important among those is the Jawaharlan Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). It is learnt that the CDC leaders had pointed out certain flaws in carrying out the programme and had virtually issued a whip to the civic body to finish the pending development schemes under the JNNURM.

About 40 per cent of Kolkata���s population still live in the slums which was a solid votebank of the ruling Marxists. Naturally, the CDC can���t take the risk of antagonising this particular votebank in the light of their pathetic show in the lok sabha elections and subsequent polls to the 16 civic bodies.

Most of the 141 wards under the KMC fall under the two lok sabha. CPIM���s defeat in the two parliamentary seats in Kolkata clearly indicates the fact that the ruling Marxists are fast losing their support base in the city and possibilities of regaining the same seems to be extremely difficult. This is another reason for the CPIM���s anxiety over the KMC���s failure to finish all the pending development projects.