'Mamata had Bengal Assembly polls in mind'

The Communist Party of India-Marxist said on Friday Mamata Banerjee had prepared the Railway Budget with the 2011 West Bengal Assembly elections in mind.

"Yes, it is almost that," senior CPI-M leader Basudeb Acharia told reporters when asked whether the Budget was the Trinamool Congress' manifesto for the Assembly polls.

However, Acharia and CPI national secretary D Raja welcomed several 'positive' features like no raise in passenger fares or freight charges and the concessions given to various sections of people.

"The new trains, most of them for Bengal, have been announced keeping these elections in mind. ... Most of the new trains announced outside Bengal were announced by (her predecessor) Lalu Prasad earlier," Acharia said.

Referring to the announcement of constructing a 1000 MW power plant, he said "without acquiring land at Adra, she has proposed building of this power plant. It is a big project which will require at least 1,000 acres of land."

"I don't know how she will acquire land for this. She has been opposing land acquisition and now she proposes land acquisition," the CPI-M leader said.

Raja described the Budget as 'over-enthusiastic and ambitious' and said 'we don't know how she will implement all these measures.'