State tourism minister and MLA of the Dabgram- Fulbari constituency in Jalpaiguri, Gautam Deb, has said that rebel party members contesting the rural polls in the area will not have even one percent impact on the other party candidates.

As Mr Deb said this on Monday, his party also released a booklet (election manifesto) that lists the achievements and projects that have been undertaken in the Dabgram-Fulbari area.

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“The prospects of the Opposition parties in the elections are nil. We have set a target to win the Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad with a margin of more than 20,000 votes. We will win almost in all the 82 seats of four gram panchayats. We had asked dissidents not to contest in those seats, where there were multiple party candidates. Many wanted to contest the polls, but that was not possible.Accordingly, the party expelled six party members over the issue. But they cannot affect even one percent in our election bid,” Mr Deb said.

The party has sacked for six years the working president of the Dabgram-Fulbari block, Trinamul Youth Congress, Sanjay Biswas, who is contesting from Fulbari-I gram panchayat (GP) and Nirala Roy, Babita Mondal, Anita Roy, Bina Roy and Bimal Biswas, contesting from Dabgram- II.

Mr Deb said 30,000 booklets had been printed and that they would be distributed among the people to make them aware of how much the state government had laid focus on development in the area.

According to the booklet, the government has spent Rs 117,95.28 lakh for the construction of roads under four gram panchayats, while road projects worth Rs 568.45 are underway.

Work on construction of bridges with a cost of Rs 2296.55 lakh has been completed, while Rs 662.03 lakh was spent for electrification and Rs 363.54 lakh on development of schools. Four schools were upgraded to higher secondary and others, the booklet says.

“Many people benefited from social security schemes, and we plan to set up a snake park and a butterfly park at the Mahananda barrage under Fulbari-II. Road connectivity between Siliguri and Jalpaiguri through Ambari and Belakoba will see major development. A road between Salugara and Gajaldoba would be constructed at a cost of Rs 5.50 crore soon,” Mr Deb said.

He said the tourism department had sent a proposal to the central zoo authority for its approval on the construction of a bird zone at the Bengal Safari: North Bengal Wild Animal Park. The leopard safari would be introduced there after the rural elections, he said.