Lok Sabha elections: In Singur, Lakshmir Bhandar in the spotlight

Water seeps into Sunita Malik’s house in Singur every time it rains. Her husband, a carpenter, travels 40 km to Kolkata every day to make a living -- there is not much work around the rural hamlet that was once the epicentre of the anti-land acquisition movement. But ask her who she is going to vote for in the Lok Sabha election and pat comes the answer: The party that rolled out Lakshmir Bhandar.

“We will vote for whoever looks after us. Whatever we are getting is from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, so we will obviously vote for the party,” Sunita says.

In Singur’s narrow alley, her point is echoed by a group of women standing next to her. Deepa Hazra says, “With the money from Lakshmir Bhandar, I can pay my son’s school fees, and fetch the doctor if he is ill.”

Deepa’s husband is an agricultural labourer. “If he doesn’t work for a day then it becomes difficult for us to run the household.”

Another beneficiary says she can buy school books and pencils for her son.

Ria Malik, 23, is not eligible for the scheme as yet. But she knows what she is going to do with the money once she gets it. To be eligible, the beneficiary has to be a woman between 25 years and 60 years.

The Lakshmir Bhandar scheme was launched by the Mamata Banerjee government in 2021, after the Assembly elections. The payout under it was doubled in the state Budget earlier this year. And the cheer is spreading across women voters in West Bengal.

Around 30 km from Singur, in Jangipara, Chhaya Ray, a beneficiary of Lakshmir Bhandar, has attended every single TMC meeting.

Jangipara is an Assembly segment in the Sreerampur Lok Sabha constituency in Hooghly district, where three-time Member of Parliament (MP) from the TMC, Kalyan Banerjee, is pitted against his former son-in-law, Kabir Shankar Bose of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Chhaya is getting ready for Banerjee’s next rally -- the gratitude of the government schemes is weighing heavy here.

There is also hope that her 62-year-old husband, Bablu, will soon get Rs 1,000 a month under the Senior Citizen Pension Scheme. The bare basic house shows why the schemes are important.

Bablu, an idol maker, says he is being wooed by different parties this election season. But he will stick to the TMC at least for now -- after all, the application for the old-age pension scheme is pending. And he is hoping the government will facilitate building a house.

Lakshmir Bhandar scheme

In a state where big-ticket investments have become rare, Mamata Banerjee’s numerous welfare schemes are fulfilling needs in more ways than one.

But among the schemes galore, Lakshmir Bhandar is a clear showstopper.

Coverage under the scheme has reached 21.1 million women, according to the Budget speech for 2024-25. The payout from April has been enhanced to Rs 1,200 per month for women belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Rs 1,000 per month (double the earlier amount) for others.

An additional annual allocation of Rs 12,000 crore has been provided for it.

And on turning 60 years, the government promises a seamless transition to the old-age pension scheme.

Social empowerment

Experts say the dole, though small, is giving women a sense of empowerment.

“The small dole may not lead to any economic transformation, but it is definitely translating into social empowerment. It’s the woman who is deciding how to use the money,” Abhirup Sarkar, former professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, points out.  

Political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury describes the scheme as Banerjee’s “political masterstroke”.

“About 50 per cent of the electorate in West Bengal are women and a sizable portion is likely to vote for the TMC.”

Singur special

The benefits for Singur, however, go beyond the realms of the standard schemes.

Binoy Khara, 72, is a beneficiary of the old-age pension scheme. But that apart, every month he and his three brothers get 16 kg of rice and Rs 2,000 each.  

There are two camps in Singur -- the “willing” land losers who gave up their plot for Tata Motors’ Nano factory in 2006 and took the compensation cheque from the then Left Front West Bengal government and the “unwilling”, who protested the land acquisition and refused to accept compensation.

The “unwilling” were much smaller in number -- about 20 per cent of the total. But they fought against forcible land acquisition, a cause spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee, then in the Opposition, which ultimately led to the pullout of the Nano project in 2008.

Star power

Singur is one of the seven Assembly segments in the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency. The MP here is the BJP’s Locket Chatterjee, actress-turned-politician.

In the Assembly election of 2021, however, the TMC had won in all the seven constituencies.

This time, the TMC has fielded Rachana Banerjee, the anchor of a hugely popular television show Didi No. 1 in the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency.

In the Singur market area, Kartik Das says, “I missed Rachana the first day when she was campaigning. But at least, I managed to catch a glimpse the second time. She waved at all of us like God.”