Kolkata: Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has played a spoilt sport for the Grand Alliance in the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections. After the announcement of the Bihar assembly elections, there had been allegations from the political circles that in reality, Owaisi’s real game plan was to benefit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by dividing the minority votes.
The West Bengal assembly polls are scheduled next year and Owaisi has already announced that his party will contest in Bengal elections as well. In such a situation, many are apprehending that like Bihar, in Bengal also the division of Muslim votes by AIMIM will actually benefit BJP.
In such a situation, AIMIM leadership has sent an open invitation to West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee for a Trinamool Congress (TMC)-AIMIM alliance in the forthcoming polls to stop BJP’s uprising.
During an exclusive conversation with ETV Bharat, AIMIM’s national spokesperson and the party’s Bengal observer, Asim Waqar said just for the sake of countering BJP our leadership wants to forge an alliance with Trinamool Congress.
Also read: 'AIMIM has no ground in West Bengal'
“From the results of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it is clear that Trinamool Congress on its own will not be able to counter BJP this time. So our leader, Asaduddin Owaisi wants an alliance with Trinamool Congress. Now it is up to Mamata Banerjee to decide. If she agrees to go for an alliance she is most welcome. Otherwise, AIMIM will contest the Bengal polls on its own. We want to field candidates in the district of West Bengal and will soon decide the number of seats and names of the constituencies from where our candidates will contest,” Waqar said.
TMC leaders are, however, tight-lipped over this development. When contacted by ETV Bharat, the chief whip of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal assembly, Tapas Ray said that since this alliance is a very sensitive issue any decision on it will be taken only by the chief minister and she will be the only person to comment on this issue.
A similar opinion was expressed by the West Bengal power minister, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay when contacted. “This is an extremely sensitive issue. Only the chief minister can decide and speak on the matter,” he said.
However, he added, that the voters’ nature of West Bengal is totally different from that of Bihar. “The recent development projects taken up by the state government has immensely benefited people irrespective of religion. The political conscious voters of West Bengal always cast their votes on the basis of work done by the government. They will do the same next year as well. Owaisi will not be a factor for us," he said.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, All India Minority Youth Federations’ general secretary, Mohammad Kamruzzaman said to prevent BJP's rise, all parties should come together now forgetting their ideological differences. “All political parties publicly say that BJP is their principal enemy. However, none of the political parties do the needful by sacrificing their self-interests before the elections to give the anti-BJP alliance a concrete shape. Even Asaduddin Owaisi is in politics. So it will be unfair to expect all the sacrifices only from him,” Kamruzzaman said
Political observers feel that if finally AIMIM contests on his own then both Congress-Left Front alliance and Trinamool Congress have reasons to worry.
AIMIM already has a strong presence in Bihar - adjacent North Dinajpur district as well as in minority-dominated Malda and Murshidabad districts. Apart from that AIMIM network is also quite active among the Urdu speaking Muslims in Kolkata and its adjacent, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts. So it is quite possible that even without winning a single seat AIMIM can play a spoilt-sport for both Congress-Left alliance as well as Trinamool Congress as it did for the Grand Alliance in Bihar.
Also read: AIMIM winning five seats in Bihar is matter of concern: Giriraj Singh
In Bihar elections, in constituencies like Thakurganj, RJD or Congress had to virtually forego their sure victories as AIMIM attracted a substantial chunk of Muslim votes in their favour.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has indirectly admitted that AIMIM can prove to be a mood-damper in Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur districts, where still Congress has a dedicated vote bank. “This is a fact that AIMIM ensured BJP’s victory in certain constituencies in Bihar by dividing Muslim votes. So all of us, especially the secular forces in Bengal need to remain alert,” he said.
However, a senior Congress leader, said on condition of anonymity that AIMIM’s influence in Bengal is limited to only Urdu speaking Muslims. However, the Urdu speaking population contributes to only six per cent of the total Muslim population in the state. “I do not think that AIMIM has much influence among Bengali speaking Muslims. So I do not think that AIMIM can go much far just with the support of Urdu speaking population,” he said.
