The controversy over an advertisement by the UP government in a leading national English daily has created controversy in West Bengal as well. No one has contested that the flyover shown in the advertisement is Kolkata's Maa flyover. But the political scuffle between the Left parties and the Trinamool Congress over who had built the longest flyover in Kolkata is noticeable.
TMC leaders were swift to take to the social media, condemning the advertisement given by Yogi Adityanath government, and claimed that the flyover was built by Mamata Banerjee government for West Bengal.
The CPI(M) gave a sharp rebuttal. While condemning Yogi's move, the party said that the flyover was built when the chief minister was Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Bhattacharjee's Urban Development minister, then man behind the project Ashok Bhattacharya, told THE WEEK: "It was sheer dishonesty on the part of the ruling party of Bengal and the UP government. I am totally in shock seeing the Yogi government claiming to have built it. At the same time, I am doubly shocked seeing that the ruling party of Bengal took credit for it."
Bhattacharya said that the project was initiated in 2009 under the JNURM joint venture project between Centre and state. The total project cost was Rs 180 cr. He was present during the inaugural programe of the flyover, where cricketer Saurav Ganguly was also present.
"Saurav was the chief guest at the function. We built it by 2011 January, and this government, aftet we lost the election, opened it," the former minister told THE WEEK.
Bhattacharya said that all the flyovers in Kolkata which are seen today were built by Buddhadeb's government, between 2001 to 2010. "The most unfortunate thing was that our chief minister was against publicity, and we had no money for that," said he.
Firhad Hakim, cabinet minister in Banerjee's cabinet, contested the ex-minister's claims, calling it a "half truth".
