Mamata Banerjee recently deflated the Gujarat bubble by hailing the Bengal model that "has worked wonders in last two-and-a-half years".

 

Modi didn't have to inherit a legacy of debt or secessionist - and subversive - activities worked in favour of Gujarat but still it couldn't match the development graph of Bengal, Mamata claimed before leaving for New Delhi to start her nationwide campaign. 

"Did Mr A or Mr B have the Junglemahal (Naxal) problem to solve? We have brought peace there. Did Mr A or Mr B have a Darjeeling-like problem to solve? Darjeeling is now smiling. Did Mr A or Mr B inherit a debt burden of over Rs 2 lakh crore? In spite of all these, we have been on the path of development," Mamata said. 

Bengal's Gujarat agony, however, owes its genesis to October 3, 2008, when the Tata Nano factory was moved from Singur to Sanand. As chief minister, Mamata's inflexibility on the land acquisition and lack of big-ticket investments has always ignited the Gujarat-Bengal debate.

Mamata suggested that Gujarat has had sustained development without facing any problem while Bengal "had to rise from bottom upwards" as it had been "ruined for over 34 years by the Communists".

In Bengal, she said, every parameter had gone down. There was "flight of capital" from the state, 50,000 factories had been shut down and 1 crore people had lost their jobs. "This was the story of Bengal when my government took over. Other states have had sustained development for many decades. What Bengal is doing today, India must do tomorrow. These are not hollow words," Mamata insisted.

"So before you start comparing Bengal to other states, it is important to understand the ground reality. In MSME, the growth in Bengal has been around 105% while it is 48% in Karnataka. Gujarat is in the 20s. I can challenge that the incentive package Bengal's new Industrial Policy document has in offer is better than any other state," Mamata added.