Mamata Banerjee, the CM of West Bengal who is among foremost ‘secular’ leaders of India, is so scared of Owaisi’s entry in West Bengal that she has asked Imams and Maulvis to oppose the Hyderabad based party.
Chairman of the Bengal Imam Association, Md Yahya told India Today, “Bengali Muslims and Bengalis, in general, have never got divided along religious lines. Some sections are trying to create a communal divide, but we won’t allow that in politics. Economic and social issues should dominate Bengal politics.”
“Where was Owaisi all these days? Suddenly he got reminded of Muslims in Bengal? When Bengalis were being driven out of Assam using NRC, where was Owaisi? Owaisi cannot be the face of Muslims in Bengal. Muslim hardliner will only give advantage to hardline Hindutva,” Yahya added.
He went on to allege, “They [AIMIM] are coming to divide Bengalis on Hindu-Muslim line but we won’t support that. We don’t accept Abbas Siddiqui as a political leader. Owaisi is fooling Muslims in Bengal, he came and did not even meet his own party cadres but met a cleric. He is coming to build his own fortune here,” clearly extending his support to Mamata and TMC.
“Muslims in Bengal will vote based on economic and social issues. India is a secular democratic country and we shall fight to protect it,” said Md Yahya.
A large section of the Muslim community and a few influential clerics of Bengal have come out in support of Owaisi in the last few weeks, much to Mamata’s dismay. On Sunday Owaisi met a young and influential cleric, Abbas Uddin Siddiqui, in a two-hour-long meeting. This is significant because the leader has been a critic of the Mamata Government and has been outspoken about her failed policies.
Siddiqui, in recent months, has accused the TMC of not doing enough for the minority community and using it as a vote bank instead. He also happens to be the young scion of the Siddiqui family, who is the custodian of the famous Furfura Sharif Shrine, one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in Bengal. Thus, he has a substantial Muslim influence in the state and him allying with Owaisi can’t be good news for Mamata.
Owaisi stated after the meeting, “The AIMIM will stand behind Abbas Siddiqui. We will work with him and strengthen his cause. I have decided to leave all decisions to Siddiqui. I am confident that our performance will be comparable to what we achieved in Bihar. Only the minority vote is not our target. We want to fight for tribal people and other backward classes as well. If anyone can stop the BJP, it is Siddiqui.”
A scared Mamata Banerjee has previously alleged that Owaisi is BJP’s man. The Muslims make up nearly 30% of the voters in the state, a voter base Mamata has usurped, by hook or by crook. Her penchant of handing out favours to certain influential sects has until now helped turn the tables in her favour, but with BJP’s rising popularity, Mamata Banerjee fears for her diminishing powers.
Mamata Banerjee cannot deny the growing popularity of Owaisi among the North Indian Muslims, and the massive surge of his party across the country including Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal. Owaisi, who is losing ground in Hyderabad to BJP, has shifted his focus towards North India.
Moreover, given the fact that North India is larger in terms of the total number of seats in the Parliament and Assembly Constituencies, and the population of Muslims is significantly higher compared to Southern India, penetrating in the states like UP, Bihar, West Bengal, and Maharashtra, heading north this time has become a natural choice for Owaisi.
In a series of actions indicating the inevitable, BJP has been diverting the Hindu vote for themselves. While it has been clear since the Lok Sabha Elections of 2019 that voters are now moving away from TMC’s corrupt and oppressive governance model, Mamata Banerjee had counted on her loyal Muslim voters to bring her a favourable mandate. She has for long depended on vote bank politics to keep herself getting elected in West Bengal, time and again. However, with Owaisi’s entry in the fray, things are certainly looking gloomy for TMC and Mamata.