Murshidabad: The district of Murshidabad, Bengal’s third largest with 22 assembly seats, is headed for a direct fight. The battle lines in the former administrative headquarters of undivided Bengal have been drawn primarily between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Sanjukta Morcha, an alliance of Left parties, the Congress and new entrant Indian Secular Front (ISF).
Six of the seats, however, are set for a complicated battle — in three, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM is in the fray while in the other three, the ISF has fielded candidates against ally Congress.
At least 11 of the constituencies are scheduled to vote Monday (26 April), while the rest will vote on 29 April.
Murshidabad, with around 70 per cent Muslim populace, is the only district in West Bengal where the CPI(M) and the Congress are still politically relevant.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has failed to breach the Congress fort in Murshidabad over the past 10 years.
In the 2016 assembly elections, the Congress won 14 of the 22 seats, while Mamata’s Trinamool Congress bagged four and the CPI(M) took the other four.
The Bengali-speaking indigenous Muslims in the district say they have traditionally and historically been with the Congress. They acknowledge “Didi’s relentless fight” against Modi’s BJP but say that for generations, they have voted for the Congress and in some areas, the CPI(M).
They question Mamata Banerjee’s ‘development plan’ for Muslims.
“Didi forgets us once elections are over; she is more concerned about migrant Muslims (Urdu and Hindi speaking) settled in south Bengal (Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata, South and North 24 Paragana districts). She hardly visited us in the past five years. Do you see any development here?” Abdur Rahman, senior teacher of a government school in Murshidabad’s Domkal, asked.
There had been a shift of vote to Trinamool Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but experts say that has to do more with national concerns.
In the Parliamentary elections, for the first time in a decade, the TMC led in 16 of 22 assembly segments and won in two of the district’s three Lok Sabha seats.
The results are an instance of “consolidation of Muslim votes” for Mamata Banerjee and against Modi because it was national election, said Nazrul Islam, a retired IPS officer who has written many books on Muslim issues.
“Assembly elections are different. Mamata Banerjee may have some traction this time but Muslims in the district appear to be aligned with Congress and CPM more. Mamata Banerjee is almost an outsider to them,” said Islam, who runs an education society in Domkol that includes at least a dozen institutions.
Political experts blame the chief minister’s “faulty posturing” and “indifference to the region” for the Trinamool failing to make inroads.
The ruling party, however, counters these claims, stating that the party was in “wrong hands” in the district but now things will change as “Didi is in charge”.
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The Congress-CPI(M) belt
The district, located along the international border between India and Bangladesh, will see a clamour for the Muslim vote.
The three constituencies where the Congress and ISF are in a battle — Farakka, Raninagar and Murshidabad — have a Muslim population of 65 per cent, 80 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively.
The AIMIM is contesting at Jalangi, Sagardighi and Bharatpur where Muslims constitute 73 per cent, 62 per cent and 55 per cent of the population, respectively.
The CPM has won nine consecutive elections since 1977 at Domkol, a constituency with 89 per cent Muslims, the highest in the country.
Stakeholders say Mamata has made no inroads here as her government has “never brought in meaningful development”.
“Mamata Banerjee’s policies are not about development, it is really about appeasement,” said Anarul Islam, secretary of the Basantapur Education Society, an NGO in the district. “One can go around Domkal and find out what she has done for Muslims. She is staying here for three days to conduct elections, promising to bring a college, university and infrastructure now. She did not do these in the past 10 years. Financial assistance to imams doesn’t help Muslims.”
Abdul Majid, a retired government employee at the Beldanga constituency, which is held by Congress, said, “We are not seeing any traction for AIMIM here. Murshidabad is not about Urdu-speaking Muslims. The fight is between Congress-CPM alliance and Trinamool. ISF is also a new party. They have an appeal towards Bengali Muslims but we do not relate to them much.”
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the TMC hasn’t made inroads because “Mamata only indulges in appeasement”.
“Mamata Banerjee could never break the Congress fort here because her intentions for Muslims were never honest. She always tries to use them as vote-banks,” he said. “She tried to scare them saying BJP would throw them out under CAA. She did fear mongering, but did not help Muslim migrant labours to return to the state during Corona. They needed their chief minister then. Congress had always been with them.”
Chowdhury, down with Covid, is confident that his party leaders and workers will resist Trinamool on the polling day.
“She called migrant-trains as Corona express. One can see how she is appealing to Muslims in Murshidabad to get united and vote for her. She is publicly saying that she needs seats here to form the government. Muslims are not fools; they see her real face.”
The TMC is urging the local population to consolidate against the BJP.
“I appeal to you to be united this time and vote for Trinamool. If we get a good number of seats in these two districts (Murshidabad and Malda) and some others (such as South Dinajpur), we will be able to form the government,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at a public rally in Murshidabad’s Bhagwangola Wednesday.
“You must understand that I am appealing to you for a reason. You have to trust me this time. Do you want our state to go to the BJP and become another Gujarat?”
Trinamool MP Abu Taher Khan said the party was upbeat about its prospects as the “Congress, CPI(M) and the ISF are not in sync”.
“Muslims will consolidate in favour of Didi. Earlier, we could not win here, because the leadership was not good. They indulged in violence,” Khan said, referring to former minister Suvendu Adhikari, who was the TMC in-charge of the district.
“Didi has taken over and we are expecting at least 18 seats,” he added.
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‘Absence of BJP threat hurting TMC’
Analysts, meanwhile, say the lack of a BJP presence is in fact hurting the TMC.
Muslims in the district never saw BJP as a threat here as they are an overwhelming majority, said Abdul Matin, professor at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
“Hindus are a minority here. So BJP has never been a factor. Muslims in south Bengal supported Mamata Banerjee as they saw BJP as a threat,” he said. “Murshidabad is different. They did not shift allegiance from Congress and CPM. To them, Congress and CPM are secular parties. They are not comfortable with Mamata Banerjee’s soft Hindutva. So, Congress and CPM are more acceptable and relevant to them.”
Prof Samir Das, a political analyst, added: “The Congress has a historic hold over Murshidabad. Pranab Mukherjee was an MP from this district and his son also won here. So it is seen as a district from where Congress could never be ousted.”
He added: “The CPM could not do it and Trinamool failed in its earlier attempts. The Bengali-speaking Muslims do not see Mamata Banerjee as their representative, and she does not have any strong Muslim face in her party. So Trinamool does not appeal to them.”
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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whereever a community which does not believe in INDIAN CONSTITUTION but believe when in majority they will establish a religious fundamentalist state . In such constituencies Political parties who have coined the phrase HINDU TERRORISM will win.