Move over Asaduddin Owaisi. There is a bigger ‘vote-cutter’ in town. And it is the Indian National Congress — the party that calls itself the saviour of ‘Idea of India’. The Congress’ pre-poll alliance with the Left Front and the newly formed Indian Secular Front in West Bengal for the upcoming assembly election is the latest example of why it has no right to accuse Owaisi’s AIMIM of eating into anti-BJP votes.
Once there used to be a Mahagathbandhan, or Grand Alliance. And there was a time when Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee seemed like a leader who took everyone along in the 2019 Lok Sabha fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The famous pre-election photograph of all Mahagathbandhan leaders on stage with Banerjee in the middle of Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati was a telling example of how she had played a central role in this alliance.
But that was 2019. And a lot has changed since then.
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The Congress dissonance
The Congress has ironically become the party that is now causing maximum advantage to the BJP to cut the Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s legs in West Bengal by allying with Abbas Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front (ISF), whose secular credentials seem questionable.
That the Congress is trying too hard to live up to its name, in an election that seems already lost for them, is amply clear. But the fact that it is targeting maximum harm to the TMC in this process is not only surprising but unfortunate to the cause it always lays claim to: ‘saving the idea of India’, which Rahul Gandhi had spoken of while resigning as Congress president in July 2019.
Only calling yourself “amrai bikalpa” (we are the alternative) doesn’t change the messaging you’re sending across. The Congress’ central leadership is in shambles with the G-23 leaders sending a letter to Sonia Gandhi requesting a permanent and viable leadership. Then Ghulam Nabi Azad waxed eloquent about Modi being his “true self” and not “living in a bubble” like others, showing that the Congress has now broken up into many factions internally and there’s considerable resentment against the Gandhis. And now their poll strategy in different states has no head and tail and is nothing more than a shot in the dark.
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Disturbing the Bengal campaign
The Congress coming together with the Left time and again is only proving what many have been claiming all along. That the party’s core leadership is now being advised by Leftists and that there’s nothing centrist about the Congress party anymore.Clearly, leaning towards the Left isn’t working out for the Congress. And now its alliance with the ISF of Abbas Siddiqui — a famous Muslim cleric in Bengal’s famous shrine Furfura Sharif who holds considerable sway in Birbhum, Burdwan, Hooghly, 24 South Parganas, 24 North Parganas and Howrah — will only help the BJP.
Notwithstanding Siddiqui’s polarising credentials, the fact is that alliance with his ISF to draw the Muslim vote away from the TMC is only giving rise to the religion pitch in Bengal. The BJP has tried every trick in the book to polarise the election — from invoking NRC-CAA to the “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants, whom Amit Shah had once referred to as “termites”. But TMC’s poll strategist Prashant Kishor remained steadfast in keeping the campaign about development by raising the welfare schemes.
And it worked for the TMC because the BJP was seen changing its goalpost by jumping from Hindu vs Muslim agenda to “Pishi-Bhaipo Sarkar” — a family-run party — jibe, something that the party has effectively used to discredit the Congress.
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Congress can see, just not its own actions
It’s not that the Congress is oblivious to the dangers of such electoral alliances and how they affect the larger battle. For the longest time, it has accused Asaduddin Owaisi of eating into ‘secular’ — or anti-BJP — votes whether it’s in Bengal or Bihar. The Congress seems to believe that any party, especially one led by a Muslim leader, that is not in alliance with it is helping the BJP. In fact, in the 2020 Bihar assembly election, it went as far to accuse Owaisi of “reverse radicalisation” of minorities.
Amusingly, it was Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, president of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, who warned other parties of Owaisi’s “vote-cutter” tactics. But now his party is doing exactly that. Owaisi’s AIMIM and Siddiqui’s ISF were supposed to form an alliance but the Congress beat Owaisi to it. Not only that, it refused to take AIMIM on board despite ISF’s stated wish. The Congress would seemingly go to any length to keep Owaisi and his party from growing — in this case, seeking to establish its presence in Bengal. And here it turns willingly blind to how its own actions might prove advantageous to the BJP.
The Bengal election isn’t only about the winner this time. It is more about whether the BJP, which had only three seats in the state assembly in 2016, can finally look to establish itself firmly. If the BJP wins 92-108 seats, as predicted by C-Voter exit poll, then West Bengal could not only have a BJP government in upcoming years, it will also advance towards having a comfortable majority in Rajya Sabha. And we all know what that can mean.
The author is a political observer and writer. Views are personal.