Calcutta, Feb. 1: The Centre’s “feel good” campaign has no relation with reality, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said today.

“If anything, they (the NDA) are milking it (the feel good) with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections,” the chief minister said on returning from Hyderabad, where he had been to attend the CPM’s politburo and central committee meetings.

Virtually kicking off the Left Front’s election campaign, Bhattacharjee said there is nothing to feel good about — factories are closing, workers are unhappy. The Centre’s “faulty economic policies” have led to the closure of several public sector undertakings and jute mills, he added.

“The economy of the country and the states, in general, is going downhill. But we are hearing a term every day — feel good. What does the Centre mean by feel good? How can workers feel good when their units are closed? In Bengal, central public sectors units like MAMC, NTC (National Textile Corporation) mills and jute mills have closed down. Central units like Burn Standard, Braithwaite and Jessop are on the verge of closure,” Bhattacharjee said after inaugurating an industrial trade fair at Baruipur, 25 km from here.

Lok Sabha MP from the area Krishna Bose and local MLA Arup Bhadra, both Trinamul Congress leaders, were not present at the opening of the first such fair in South 24-Parganas. A leaflet distributed by chairperson of the Trinamul-led Baruipur municipality Ira Chatterjee said they were not formally invited.

CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty, the president of the fair’s organising committee, said Chatterjee was part of the panel and Bhadra had been called. “No MP was among the invitees. Trinamul leaders had been invited but they did not turn up.”