It was in the news when the Tata project was relocated to Gujarat post Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress's opposition to it. Now it is again at the centre of West Bengal politics after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally at Singur in January18 deriding the TMC dispensation for failing to bring in industries and generate jobs. This was followed by a counter rally by the Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on January 30.

Seeking to show the BJP led NDA government means business, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated a number of railway and infrastructure projects from Singur. The total worth of these projects is worth more than Rs 3000 crores.

If the Prime Minister zeroed in on the infiltration issue, the lack of industrialisation was the principal theme of his address. The issue has been underscored by the BJP during a Rajya Sabha debate when the House was informed that more than 6,500 industries have left the state after the TMC government came to run it.

Not a politician to take things lying down, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has held another rally at the site of her triumph. Industrialisation was on the lips of both the leaders but the duo did not mention the return of any significant industry to the area.

The Prime Minister lambasting a dispensation opposed to his party was an expected political spiel. To counter it, the Trinamool supremo went out of her way bin an anti-industry image she and her government have been tagged with.

Pitching a farm-factory equity, the Trinamool supremo claimed farm and factory can grow together. She also unveiled projects worth Rs 33, 551 crores which include Banglar Bari and Ghatal Master Plan.

But where the TMC chief scored over Prime Minister Modi was when she raised the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. Many have been summoned to prove whether they are genuine voters.

The persons summoned for SIR hearing include Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and former footballer Mehtab Hossain to name a few. Several deaths have already been reported as a fallout of SIR hearings and the issue seems to have pushed away a clutch of grievances against the Trinamool regime.

Sources stated that the chief minister's criticism of the SIR issue had more takers than the pot shots which Prime Minister Modi took at the alleged non performance of her government. Apparently the SIR issue is of greater concern than joblessness.

There being no evasion or adjournment of SIR hearings, even the elderly and infirm had no option but to trek their way to the far off hearing centres. Their discomfort together with that of their family members have been on the TMC chief 's radar when she stood up to the charges of non-performance which PM Modi threw at her government.

Indeed the TMC chief went flat out to capitalise on the SIR issue. Addressing the Singur rally, she reminded the people that India is a democracy and not a dictatorship thereby making a roundabout reference to hearing summons which cannot be avoided.

The other point, Banerjee sought to hold an upper hand on PM Modi was her reference to Bengali pride. While BJP government has given the status of classical language on Bengali, the TMC supremo insisted at the Singur rally that this has been achieved through her insistence.

The BJP leadership is yet to issue a rejoinder at Banerjee's claim that she had sent five sackfuls of books to Delhi to underscore that Bengali should have been given the status of a classical language long ago. The chief minister further said that she had set up a research team to do it.

Next came the violence on Bengali speakers in BJP-ruled states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and nearer home in Bihar and Odisha. It struck a familiar chord among the audience as many people from the Bengal countryside have gone to other states as migrant workers and are apprehensive of violence from the local people.

The back to back rallies at Singur have blown the poll bugle in West Bengal. One would not be wide off the remark to say that Mamata have been more accurate and lethal. (IPA Service)