Kolkata: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has announced seven candidates for the ongoing West Bengal assembly elections as it looks to widen its footprint beyond the Telangana capital.
The party has decided to go solo after talks of a potential coalition with Abbas Siddiqui of the Furfura Sharif fell through, with the latter choosing the Congress and the Left as its partners for his Indian Secular Front (ISF).
A larger “secular alliance” to compete against the Trinamool Congress and the BJP couldn’t take shape because of the Congress-AIMIM rivalry, and Owaisi’s independent outing could result in a split in the Muslim vote.
The West Bengal assembly altogether has 294 seats.
The seven seats the AIMIM is contesting include Jalangi, Sagardighi and Bharatpur in Murshidabad, where Muslims constitute 73 per cent, 62 per cent and 55 per cent of the population, respectively. Jalangi is currently held by the CPI (Marxist), Sagardighi by the Trinamool Congress, and Bharatpur by the Congress.
In the 2019 general election, the Trinamool Congress had a lead in all three assembly segments.
In Malda, the AIMIM is contesting from Ratua and Malatipur, both of which approximately have a 65 per cent Muslim population and were won by the Congress in 2016. The Trinamool Congress led in Ratua in 2019.
The sixth seat the AIMIM is fielding a candidate from is Itahar in North Dinajpur, which has a 47 per cent Muslim population and is currently held by the Trinamool Congress. The seventh constituency is Asansol North in West Burdwan, a primarily Hindi-speaking pocket that is the only one among the seven where the Muslims don’t constitute a majority.
Owaisi’s Bengal debut comes close on the heels of his party’s Bihar experiment, where — in its maiden assembly election in the state — the AIMIM won five of the 20 seats it contested.
ThePrint reached Owaisi by calls and text for a comment on the AIMIM’s Bengal outing, but there was no response by the time of publishing this report.
Hours after the party announced its candidates, ISF president Naushad Siddiqui said his party has “no political relationship” with the AIMIM. Naushad, brother of ISF founder and Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui, added that his party has fielded a candidate in Asansol North and may vie for a couple of seats in Murshidabad.
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ISF-AIMIM split
It was in January that Owaisi and Siddiqui hinted at an alliance, after the former visited Furfura Sharif. While Siddiqui has now opted to ally with the Congress and the Left under the ‘Sanjukta Morcha’ banner, the alliance is yet believed to be rough around the edges.
Siddiqui told ThePrint Friday that he would be supporting Congress candidates in the election, even as he added that “Congress leaders are yet to support us the way we do”.
“In hindsight, I wonder why I should have joined such an alliance with the Congress. Apart from Abdul Mannan and Pradip Bhattacharya, other Congress leaders are not comfortable about the ISF in the alliance,” he said.
Siddiqui said he “chose to be with the Left, and the Congress was part of the package”.
“I had a discussion with Owaisi saheb and floated my own party later. Since then, I was branded a vote-katua (vote cutter). I had to do something about such an allegation and that is why I decided to go with the Left parties. I did not want to be called or identified as the BJP’s B team,” he added.
Asked about their poll preparations, Naushad said the ISF is working on some seats in Murshidabad. “Our talks with the Congress are on for a couple of seats in Murshidabad. We are contesting in Asansol North,” he added.
About the AIMIM, Naushad said, “There is no political connection between the ISF and the MIM now. We are two different political parties. The ISF is part of the Sanjukta Morcha.”
Among the seats the AIMIM is eyeing, the Congress has announced candidates in Ratua and Sagardighi. With the Trinamool Congress also in the fray, it may result in a fragmentation in the Muslim vote.
Edited by Sunanda Ranjan
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Will the Bengali speaking Muslims of Bengal accept the Domination of this Urdu speaking politician from Hyderabad known for its Sherwani and Biryani.
Historically Bengali Muslims have unpleasant memories of treatment they got at the hands of Urdu speaking Muslims who were quite dismissive of Bengali language and culture.
Let’s watch the results on May 2nd.
“Owaisi’s Bengal debut comes close on the heels of his party’s Bihar experiment, where — in its maiden assembly election in the state — the AIMIM won five of the 20 seats it contested.”
The above statement in the article is incorrect as AIMIM had contested the 2015 Assembly Elections in Bihar by fielding 6 candidates and ended up with no wins.