khardaha an assembly segment on the northern fringes of the city that gave the state two finance ministers is facing an identity crisis this time a veteran tmcturnedbjp leader from a neighbouring assembly segment is up against a trinamool warhorse at khardaha assembly segment this year where development and outsider mla are prime issuesfrom 1987 to 2011 khardaha was represented by asim dasgupta a phd from mit who had been the states finance minister during the entire tenure of left front government in the tmc regime dasgupta who lives in salt lake was succeeded by amit mitra former ficci secretary general who had defeated him in 2011 and has been serving as the finance minister since then mitra is a resident of ballygungehowever this year mitra 73 was dropped from the candidate list due to his age and ongoing covid19 pandemic as tmc fielded kajal sinha a son of the soil who has been a loyal party worker for two decades he takes on turncoat shilbhadra dutta the barrackpore mla with a tmc ticketthis assembly segment has always been a high profile constituency but it has not made any difference to our lives we have never seen the two mlas in our area over the last three decades they were so important that they never bothered to visit the place the constituency may lose its vip tag but the mlas should be more approachable said sailen sarkar a resident of patulia who complained of poor water supply in the areawhat was once an industrial hub with a growing refugee colony khardaha situated barely 21 kilometres from the heart of kolkata has witnessed a real estate boom in last ten years but residents here said though some promoters and men associated with them have flourished households in talbanda bilkanda and patulia areas still live in extreme poverty and lack basic amenitieswater and drainage is also the primary election issue for both bjp and cpm here the past mlas have done nothing and turned this place into a village people still dont have water and proper electricity said dutta who defected to bjp last decembertmcs kajal sinha said amit mitra has taken the urban portion of khardaha to a different height once we come to office again we will convert this place into an industrial hub said sinha