By Tirthankar Mitra
A political outfit once considered to be a fringe player has made its presence felt over a wider area after the dust settled following declaration of West Bengal panchayat poll results. Indian Secular Front (ISF) have emerged with 336 seats.
Of these, 325 are gram panchayat seats, 10 panchayat samiti ones and one zilla parishad seat. It needs to be mentioned most of the seats in its kitty are from Bengali speaking Muslim areas of South and North-24-Parganas – a pointer to the nature of its vote bank.
Hairs may be spilt whether to call ISF a new political party. After all, its legislator from Bhangar Naushad Siddiqui is the only non-BJP MLA in the Opposition bench in the state Assembly since the coming out of the results of 2021 elections which saw Congress and Left sans any legislator.
But inarguably, it is certainly a new entrant in panchayat, the grass root to electoral success or failure of any political party in West Bengal. If it’s success in 2021 Assembly polls can be attributed to beginner’s luck, ISF’s electoral triumph in this year’s rural polls is an indication of its footprint over an area beyond Bhangar which voted its first legislator to victory. .
The spread of ISF’s sphere of influence is being rightly considered to be storm signals by the Trinamool Congress leadership. For the newcomer has encroached into a TMC support base which was hitherto considered its strong support baase.
Incidentally, it was Congress who had first perceived the threat which ISF posed to its electoral base. It was the Bengali speaking Muslim voters.
Matters had come to such a pass that an irate state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was about to leave the podium of a joint rally with Left Front before 2021 assembly election. He was restrained by front chairman Biman Bose when Chowdhury’s speech became almost inaudible following the cheers from ISF supporters after their leader had come to the podium.
ISF’s back to back electoral success in the Assembly elections and rural polls are a pointer to the taken for granted mindset of Congress and TMC towards Bengali speaking Muslim voters. After all, social welfare benefits are unlikely to reach them from supporting a small Opposition party which is not yet at par with the mainstream political outfits.
Lakshmir Bhandar, Sabuj Sathi, Kanyasree to name a few of the much vaunted social welfare schemes of the TMC government have cut little ice with the people who have voted for ISF. It is an indication of this section. of the populace seeking a political party voicing their socio-economic grievances and quest for identity.
After winning one seat in 2021 elections, the ISF has demonstrated its organisational strength in this year’s panchayat polls marked by widespread violence. It’s rank and file standing firm, ISF won 43 gram panchayat seats in Bhangar in South-24-Parganas which was in the news owing to intra-party clashes.
It needs to be mentioned that South-24-Parganas is inhabited by more than 30 per cent Muslim population. ISF’s rural poll results in North-24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly have been impressive.
Malda has been the only north Bengal district where the ISF met with electoral success. It has won 25 gram panchayat seats so far in this district once considered to be a Congress bastion.
A senior Trinamool leader requesting anonymity admitted that the last thing the ruling dispensation expected that Bhangar will become a strong ISF base. The new party made its presence felt there ever since TMC fielded a former CPI(M) leader Rezaul Karim in place of Abdur Rezzak Molla, former minister in Left Front government who had won in 2016 Assembly elections.
Seeking to cover lost ground, he said that we hope panchayat election results were localised. The people will make a different choice in Lok Sabha election next year, he added.
But founded by the cleric of the noted Furfura Sharif shrine, Noushad Abbas Siddiqui, the once unfancied ISF has come a long way. Ever since being granted bail by Calcutta High Court, after he was arrested following a face off between his supporters and city policemen, ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui has become a much watched figure in any Opposition rally in West Bengal.
With the state CPI(M) likely to go it alone in the Bengal in the Lok Sabha election next year, it will have ISF as an ally. .(IPA Service)