AISF blunder by Left and Congress becomes boon for Trinamool Congress

The All India Secular Front (AISF) blunder by Left Front and Congress became a boon for Trinamool Congress. At the same time, BJP’s polarization calculations also got upset as a result of this AISF blunder, writes Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Political scientist & former principal of Presidency College.

Kolkata: From the results, it is clear that one of the main catalysts of Trinamool Congress’s massive victory this time was the blunder by Left Front and Congress to have an alliance with Abbas Siddique’s All India Secular Front (AISF).

On one hand, the alliance with AISF consolidated the Muslim votes in favour of the Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee’s appeal to the minority community to avoid division of votes really worked in favour of her party. So the dedicated minority votes which were with Congress and Left Front even till 2019 this time consolidated in favour of Trinamool Congress. This trend is clear from Congress’s disaster in their erstwhile strongholds and minority-dominated Murshidabad and Malda districts.

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Similarly, considering Abbas Siddique's past speeches reeking extreme communal tang made the secular Hindu voters, who were dedicated towards Left Front and Congress even till 2019 frustrated. So there was a major shift from this section of the voters in favour of Trinamool this time.

The 2019 Lok Sabha elections witnessed a major shift of dedicated Left and Congress votes in favour of BJP. But in 2021, the scene reversed and a major chunk of the same votes shifted in favour of Trinamool Congress.

There were too many factors working against Trinamool Congress this time. First was the general anti-incumbency factor because of allegations of rising corruption on Amphan relief among others. But all those factors became fruitless in the face of this political mathematics shifting votes.

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Now after this victory it is to be seen how aggressive Mamata Banerjee becomes in projecting herself as the national face against Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Already senior Trinamool Congress leaders have started saying Mamata Banerjee will be the Prime Ministerial face in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

So in my opinion these aggressive projections will accelerate further in the coming days. And more aggression accelerates, the more violent will be the tussle between the centre and the state in the coming days that will ultimately hamper the state overall development.

At the same time, BJP will also have to rethink their Bengal- strategy in the coming days.

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