Howrah (West Bengal): The first foreign-funded real estate project in the country was widely viewed as a defining moment in Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's five-year rule.
He even received a memento from Indonesian industrialist Benny Santoso, who is building a huge township in the neighbourhood of Kolkata.
Bengal proudly allotted close to 400 acres of land for the project.
However, those who had to part with farmland aren't happy at all.
Says Lakshman Pal, a displaced farmer, ""When the Salim Group came here, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said our children would get jobs. But now it seems that that was simply lip service. We don't believe in him anymore. The CPM government should take full responsibility for displacing us and we want to vote them out of power."
It's more or less the same picture in Hooghly as well and disgruntled farmers of the two districts that vote on Saturday are threatening to boycott polls.
The CPI-M might not mind that at all, but Opposition leaders are trying to convince them to vote and make their protests ring through ballot boxes.
Says Congress candidate, Asit Mitra, "I would like to request all voters not to boycott votes but to cast their votes in favour of Congress or any anti-Left candidate who may defeat CPI-M or the Left Front."
While Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sells his industralisation-urbanisation-investment and job creation story wherever he goes canvassing for votes, hardliners within the CPI-M are worried that a large section of farmers in districts like Howarh and Hooghly might turn their backs on the party.
(With inputs from Sougata Mukhopadhyay)
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