By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress is likely to face a stiff competition in minority dominated constituencies in poll bound West Bengal next month after Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has decided to form an alliance with Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP). Hyderabad MP, Owaisi is scheduled to visit West Bengal on Wednesday to make an official announcement of seat sharing.
Several leaders in the TMC camp are not attaching much importance to the AIMIM -AJUP alliance cutting into the minority vote bank of the ruling dispensation. After all, given TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee strident opposition to CAA and SIR thereafter, considerable section of the community feel beholden to her and her party.
Muslims are 27.01 per cent of the population in West Bengal, according to 2011 census. The support of the community is crucial in government formation as seen during Left Front rule and TMC regime.
The community which had solidly demonstrated its support for the Left Front till 2006 assembly polls, moved away from it after Nandigram killings in 2007. Its support to TMC in 2011 polls, is stated to be one of the reasons behind the removal of the 34-year long front regime.
Political observers feel that once the AIMIM-AJUP alliance is inked, communal politics involving minority community will resurface in West Bengal. The last Muslim League legislator Hasanujaman lost the Assembly election from Deganga in North-24-Parganas in the late ’80s.
Thereafter, the BJP with its rathyatras was the only outfit bringing in religion with politics. Both the CPI(M) led Left Front and its principal Opposition, Congress and later Trinamool Congress kept minority communal politics at arm’s length.
Kabir who had been a Trinamool .MLA till the other day has been known for provocative statements and disciplinary actions which followed them. But TMC leadership showed him the door after he announced his plan of building another Babri mosque in Murshidabad.
Himself a TMC legislator from Bharatpur Assembly segment, it is a part of Behrampur Lok Sabha constituency, Kabir showed his organisational and political muscle. Volunteers and funds poured in for the construction which has been put on hold for sometime now.
The AIMIM, on the other hand, made its first electoral foray in the 2021 Assembly polls. It failed to win a single seat. Owaisi, of late, has accused TMC chief Mamata Banerjee of “injustice against Bengali Muslims”. Alleging that at least 5 lakh OBC certificates have been cancelled in West Bengal, he was seeking to prepare a groundwork for the second coming of his party in the poll battle which begins next month.
It was learnt from AIMIM sources that it would contest far fewer seats this time indicating political pragmatism. After all, it drew a blank in 2021 after contesting from Malda, Murshidabad and Uttar Dinajpur districts which have a sizeable proportion of minority population.
Owaisi in his coming tour of West Bengal is likely to camp for a week in the state. He is scheduled to address three rallies.
His principal pitch, according to his party sources will be highlighting that Muslims being denied a prominent place in the power structure in the TMC dispensation. The community is courted in the name of secularism but denied a place in “participatory democracy “, he has earlier said.
Joblessness in Malda and Murshidabad has forced a large number of Muslims to migrate The not too adequate education and healthcare facility for Muslims, chief minister Banerjee backtracking on the Waqf law despite saying initially she would resist it and removal of several minority groups from OBC list are likely to be in Owaisi ‘s arsenal
Meanwhile, AJUP has announced that it will contrast from 182 constituencies. Kabir will contest from Rejinagar and Naoda.
A Calcutta High Court has passed an order in 2024 by which 1.2 million OBC certificates have been cancelled. Issued since 2010, the cancellation of these certificates can add to election fodder of the newly cobbled alliance which can interpret it as TMC government paying only lip service to the minority community.
Earlier, Kabir played a big role in filling the electoral kitty of Yusuf Pathan, former cricketer who contested from Behrampur Lok Sabha polls in 2024 as a TMC nominee. A debutant and from outside the state, he defeated veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhury who had once led his party in the Lok Sabha.
TMC leadership is keeping its fingers crossed as Indian Secular Front is adding its finishing touches to its tie-up with Left Front. The ISF who made its presence felt in 2021 Assembly, continued its winning run in 2023 panchayat election. (IPA Service)
