Big-ticket investor pledges reinforce Mamata’s position ahead of crucial elections

Precisely the same time when the Saffron Brigade has started sharpening its arms and ammunition against the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal buoyed over the recently tasted unprecedented electoral success in Bihar, Mamata Banerjee has got a shot in the arms from the Singapore-based NRI investor group- Universal Success (S) PTE Ltd Group, just ahead of the state legislative assembly polls due in April-May, next year.

After meeting the Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, Universal Success (S) Group’s Chairman, Prasoon Mukherjee pledged investments worth over Rs8,200 crore, generating employment with over 50,650 jobs. This will certainly add substantial strength to Mamata Banerjee’s development plank over any other issue. The investment pledge has come close on the heels of BJP’s electoral triumph in neighboring Bihar.

And interestingly, Universal Success Group’s investment commitment has not been just an one-off investment proposal that the Mamata Banerjee-led government has received recently. Birla Opus Paints of Kumar Mangalam Birla-lef Aditya Birla group, Sajjal Jindal-led Jindal Group, Harsh Neoria-led Ambuja Neotia Group and even the Tata Group's Tata Hitachi and ICHL committed several projects in the state.

People’s attention span being considered to be very short these days, the timing of such investment pledges will certainly be advantageous to Mamata Banerjee who will be seeking a re-election for the fourth time in a row.

Having said all these, one must also remember that Prasoon Mukherjee’s Universal Success is no new to Bengal or Bengal’s electorate. Prasoon Mukherjee, who was then based out of Indonesia and happened to be a business associate and partner of Indonesia’s Salim group, had come to his original home state- West Bengal with series of investment proposals during Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s tenure.

However, Bengal’s experience with Universal Success group (and vice versa) was nothing to write home about at that time, for more reasons than one. Mukherjee or Universal Success (S) Group’s investment commitments now include: USE Logistics Park, Uluberia entailing an investment of Rs700 crore (employment generation-15,000), USE Kona Logistics Park, Howrah (investment-Rs200 crore, employment- 5,000 jobs), USE Data Centre BSV (investment- Rs1600 crore, 150 jobs), Infospace IT Park (Investment--Rs2,500 crore, employment generation- 25,000), New Town Residential Developments (investment--Rs2,000 crore, employment generation- 3,000), among others.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Universal Success(S) Group’s fresh investment commitments including renewal of some old and existing interests are bound to spark off fresh political debates and controversies from Mamata Banerjee’s detractors and political bete noire.

It is not that Mamata Banerjee does not know this. She knows if these remain non-starters that may back fire. Successful delivery and that too in a time-bound manner is going to be extremely crucial and critical, this time round.