New Delhi, June 29 -- Few states have fallen so far behind as West Bengal. At independence, it was India's industrial heartland; first among all provinces in manufacturing employment, home to about a third of Indian factory workers, with Calcutta as the nation's commercial capital.

It had ports, proximity to the mineral wealth of the eastern plateau, a gateway to Southeast Asia and an intellectual tradition that gave the boast "what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow" its swagger. Entering the 1960s, it stood among the three richest states in the Union.

Today, with the Trinamool Congress voted out in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party, it ranks among the country's most indebted states. Its relative per-capita income-127.5% of ...