Poor alienated due to tardy policy implementation: Buddhadeb

KOLKATA - In the wake of a string of electoral reverses over the last two years, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Friday admitted that laxity in implementing developmental policies led to the alienation of the poor from the state’s ruling Marxists.

“I do agree with the fact that a section of poor people has distanced itself from us. There is a big gap in implementation of developmental policies. We have to develop implementation further and make it much stronger. And that is why a section of poor people who have been our strength have moved away from us. I have told my ministers too look into the implementation work in their own districts,” Bhattacharjee said in an interview to a private Bengali news channel.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front government, which has been ruling the state for straight 33 years, had to face a series of electoral setbacks in last two years.

“We have been able to bring a section of the poor people who went away from us. We have taken up various developmental policies and are successfully working on it. But still there are a section of poor people who are not with us. We have to intensify the implementation of developmental policies,” said Bhattacharjee, who is also a politburo member of the CPI-M.