2013 Election Tracker Survey: West Bengal

As India gets ready for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the two key states of West Bengal and Bihar are going to prove very crucial in ensuring who forms the next government at the Centre. Both states are ruled by strong regional parties led by charismatic leaders who are yet to clearly spell out their plans for the next Lok Sabha elections.

According to a CSDS-CNN-IBN survey, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal has consolidated its position since the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009 while the situation is not so clear in Bihar where the Janata Dal (United) snapped its ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following the elevation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as election campaign committee chief.

The TMC is not only going retain its dominant position in West Bengal but will leave its rivals way behind if elections are held in July 2013. The survey shows the TMC winning 23-27 seats compared to just 19 that the party had in 2009 even though its vote share has increased by just one percentage point to 32 from 31 the last time.

Mamata's arch-rivals the Left Front has slipped back further and most probably

will end with just 7-11 seats from the 15 that it has in the current Lok Sabha while the Congress is likely to bag 5-9 seats and BJP 0-2.

While most people prefer the present TMC government (39 per cent) to previous Left Front government (29 per cent), particularly in rural areas; but in urban areas, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's government favoured more than Mamata Banerjee's.

The TMC government is also being blamed by more people for the chit fund scam with most people also saying that its fallout has been handled poorly by the Mamata Banerjee government. While Mamata rode to power in West Bengal ending the 34-year long rule of the Left Front using the slogan of "parivartan" (change), half of those surveyed say they are yet to see any major change.

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See Also:-

2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "Gujarat"

2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "Uttar Pradesh"
2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "Madhya Pradesh"
2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "Maharashtra"
2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "Andhra Pradesh"

2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "Tamil Nadu"

2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "Bihar"

2013 Election Tracker Survey: State Scan - "West Bengal"

2013 Election Tracker Survey: Nitish prefer for PM in non-Cong,non-BJP

2013 Election Tracker Survey: UPA-II more corrupt

2013 Election Tracker Survey (in General)

2 new major ports in India

Giving a push to infrastructure development, the government, approved a proposal to set up two major ports in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh at an investment of about Rs.15,820 crore. The new port in West Bengal, which will have a capacity of 54 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), requires an investment of around Rs.7,820 crore. The other new port in Andhra Pradesh, whose projected capacity is around 50 mtpa, would entail an investment of about Rs.8,000 crore.

The new ports will be notified as major ports under the Indian Ports Act, 1908. Major ports come under the Central Government, while minor ports are operated by State governments as well as by the private sector.

The move to set up new ports comes after several years. The need for a port at Sagar in West Bengal was felt as the existing ports at Kolkata and Haldia were facing capacity constraints. The location for port in Andhra Pradesh has not yet been finalised, and the State Government has identified three locations — Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam, Ramayyapatnam in Prakasam and Dugarajapatnam in Nellore. The new major ports are likely to be set up on public-private partnership (PPP) mode, and will cater to increased imports of coal and oil besides boosting the local economy and generating jobs.

There are at present 12 major ports —

(i)                Kolkata-Halida

(ii)             Paradip

(iii)           Visakhapatnam

(iv)           Ennore

(v)              Chennai

(vi)           V O Chidambaranar (formerly Tuticorin)

(vii)         Kochi

(viii)      New Mangalore

(ix)           Mormugao

(x)              Mumbai

(xi)           Jawaharlal Nehru (JNPT) and

(xii)         Kandla