Veteran Trinamool Congress leader Gautam Deb, the candidate from the Siliguri Assembly seat, released a nine-point “pratigya” (pledge) on Thursday, while underscoring that all the promises would be met once he is elected.

“The state committee of our party has endorsed the pledges and is committed to meet all nine points. We have sincerely worked for a comprehensive development of the city and have mentioned details about the infrastructure, beautification and social security works which we intend to carry out for the residents,” Deb said.

The nine pledges — which were released as a short manifesto — include major infrastructural development plans like construction of an elevated bridge from Sevoke Road to Surya Sen Park parallel to Hill Cart Road, upgrading the Kanchenjunga Stadium to develop it into a sports arena of international standards, a cricket stadium named after Richa Ghosh, Siliguri resident and member of Indian women’s cricket team that won the ICC Women’s World Cup, a new complex of Siliguri court and renovation of a market complex at Babupara.

The manifesto also highlighted plans to provide land rights to people residing on government land, discuss ownership rights for shopkeepers at Bidhan Market, the largest retail hub in the city, and construct housing complexes in colony areas.

It also mentions that beautification and preservation of the Mahananda river would be carried out under the city river management programme and a new bus terminus would be built at Darjeeling More, the principal entry point to the city.

The party manifesto published by chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee says that Siliguri would be one of the 25 model cities that they plan to build with state-of-the-art urban infrastructure.

The manifesto also mentions that an MSME export hub would be set up in Siliguri and three other cities in the state, and the Kanchenjunga Stadium would be upgraded to international standards.

Political observers pointed out that Deb releasing a specific manifesto for Siliguri, the largest urban hub in north Bengal, hints that the party is desperate to win the seat this time.

Trinamool won the seat in 2011, while CPM and BJP won in 2016 and 2021, respectively.

“He is a seasoned politician and has thus come up with more specific commitments to consolidate support. The pledges cover some of the longstanding demands of Siliguri residents, like mitigation of traffic congestion and improvement of sports infrastructure. It would be interesting to see whether the BJP comes up with similar assurances,” said an observer.

Raju Bista, the BJP MP of Darjeeling, was critical of Trinamool.

“Trinamool has been in power for the past 15 years…but they have done little for the city,” he said.

Modi visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public meeting in support of BJP candidates from the Assembly seats of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri at Kawakhali, on the outskirts of Siliguri, on April 12.

On Thursday, Bista and some senior BJP leaders inspected the venue. The party plans to bring in over three lakh people at the meeting, a source said.