By Tirthankar Mitra
Politics makes unusual bedfellows. However eyebrows have been actually raised when Subhendu Adhikari, a state BJP chief who makes no secret of his group’s affinity with Hindutva, not too long ago spoke about supporting a consultant of one other political group within the Diamond Harbor Lok Sabha constituency to defeat Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee.
The opposite group referred to, which is especially populated by Muslims and leaders and activists from minority communities, is the Indian Secular Entrance (ISF), which is represented by one lawmaker Naushad Siddiqui within the state meeting. The day after Adhikari’s announcement, Siddiqui declared that he needs to tackle Banerjee in subsequent 12 months’s Lok Sabha elections. This means that Adhikari was not flying a kite.
Siddiqui’s phrases are certainly storm alerts for the TMC dispensation. For it alerts that ideologically numerous forces within the opposition are closing ranks as even PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has expressed muted help for Siddiqui if he contests from Diamond Harbour.
For as soon as, the Trinamool management confirmed neither contempt nor complacency on the phrases of their political opponents. At a time when Chief of Opposition Subhendu Adhikari’s allegations are being mocked and dismissed, Abhishek’s tackle Siddiqui’s phrases confirmed no indicators of disdain.
The day after Siddiqui expressed his views on the battle from Diamond Harbour, MP Banerjee at a rally warned his constituents towards the makes an attempt of communal parts to create bother. Placing on a courageous face, Banerjee stated that anybody from this constituency can contest and on the identical time appealed to his supporters to extend his victory margin to 4 lakh votes within the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Other than the pre-election jitters, together with celebration supremo and his aunt, Mamata Banerjee asking him if he would go for a Rajya Sabha seat, the de facto second chief of TMC within the 2019 elections had a margin of three, Received 12 lakh votes. But his willingness to answer a political celebration lawmaker can’t camouflage his issues
If you’re intrigued by Banerjee’s apprehension over Siddiqui’s apprehension of ‘encroachment’ into Diamond Harbour, the explanations for the previous’s issues should not unfounded. Siddiqui comes from a household that’s custodians of the well-known Furfura Sharif shrine, which has huge affect over Muslims within the rural areas of the state.
Backed by the Congress and the Left, Siddiqui received the 2021 Meeting elections from Bhangar in South-24-Parganas, which was an epicenter of agitation over land acquisition for an influence plant. His victory, which preceded ISF’s emergence right into a year-old political outfit, was a wake-up name for the Trinamool Congress.
As a result of the Muslims have at all times voted en masse for the TMC nominees after the Nandigram agitation, by which nearly all of those that have been prone to lose their land if a chemical hub got here up have been from this group. It’s Siddiqui’s attraction to the members of his group that has Banerjee and Trinamool fearful.
Though the Bhangar Meeting phase shouldn’t be a part of the Diamond Harbor Lok Sabha constituency, each are a part of the South-24-Parganas district. In line with the 2011 census report, South 24 Parganas is inhabited by 35.57 p.c Muslims. Greater than 50 p.c of Diamond Harbor voters are Muslim. Regardless that Abhishek has received twice from this seat, he isn’t taking any probabilities for the third time.
In line with Trinamool sources, Siddiqui performed a recce on this riverside Lok Sabha constituency earlier than throwing his hat into the ring. Lengthy story quick: he’s relying on the Muslim votes.
When the ISF candidate received from Bhangar within the Meeting elections, no Congress or Left Entrance candidate received from another constituency within the state. It was the BJP that emerged as the primary opposition celebration and the saffron camp providing its help to Siddiqui if he contests from Diamond Harbor is certainly conveying a severe message to the ruling dispensation of the state. Polls after the Meeting confirmed that ISF affect wouldn’t be washed away within the Panchayat elections. It received numerous seats in Bhangar.
The opposition’s sport plan appears to boil right down to the Sagardighi mannequin, the place the Left-backed Congress candidate Bayron Bis, with tacit help from the BJP, defeated a Trinamool candidate who occurred to be associated to the celebration’s high brass. By the way, like Bhangar and Diamond Harbour, Sagardighi was a Muslim-majority constituency in Murshidabad.
MP Abhishek’s two issues are a mirrored image of celebration supremo Mamata Banerjee’s issues about Muslim votes slipping from the TMC kitty after Sagardighi’s election defeat. This vote financial institution assisted her within the 2019 and 2021 elections, which marked an electoral success even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Dwelling Minister Amit Shah criss-crossed the state to marketing campaign for the candidates for the saffron camp.
Banerjee has taken a number of measures to woo Muslim votes, together with adjustments within the celebration’s minority cell. In the meantime, the Diamond Harbor MP has promised a number of schemes for residents of his constituency and promised that the “presents” could be delivered to folks’s doorsteps by TMC activists.
If Siddiqui finally ends up being the ISF candidate, he who has an alliance with the Left Entrance and Congress has been allowed by the excessive command within the state to ally with the CPI(M)-led Left Entrance and the ISF and the BJP is supporting the ISF candidate from exterior, that could possibly be a formidable mixture to tackle Abhishek Banerjee. The ISF could not win, however the margin will definitely come down from the over 3 lakh of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
However there’s a massive query. Will Congress, with Mamata Banerjee’s affect on INDIA management and Abhishek’s private bond with Rahul Gandhi, enable the state Congress to be a part of a gaggle that challenges the INDIA bloc coordination committee member and in addition is brazenly or covertly supported by the BJP? . The Congress management has no sympathy for the ISF, which enjoys full help from CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Selim. It should even be a fragile challenge for the central management of the CPI(M) if the CPI(M) turns into a celebration in a mix that can be supported by the BJP. Solely when this challenge is resolved will the time come to guage whether or not Siddiqui will probably be an actual competitor to Abhishek or whether or not the CPI(M), just like the 2021 Meeting elections, will as soon as once more lose face. (IPA service)
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