With Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India-Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) deciding to take a plunge in the Bengal Assembly elections an alarmed Trinamool Congress has called it a “B-Team of the BJP” being put into service for cutting votes of other “secular” outfits.
Hours after Owaisi said that his party was game for contesting the next year’s Assembly polls in Bengal senior TMC MP Saugato Roy said Owaisi’s was a “vote-cutter” outfit and need not be given much importance.
“Owaisi’s party is BJP’s ‘vote-cutter’ party. Why are we giving so much importance to him? This was the third time that he contested elections in minority-dominated zones of Bihar and won 5 seats. What difference will 5 seats make? Also, his party appeals to the Urdu-speaking Muslims. He will not appeal to the Muslims of West Bengal who are mostly Bengali-speaking,” Roy said even as another senior TMC leader conceded that MIM could play the spoil sport in Bengal should it become a closely contested election a la Bihar.
“TMC is the most popular and preferred party in the minority belts” --- which impact at least 123 out of 294 seats in the State, a TMC leader from the minority community said adding “our prospects may be hampered if MIM squeezes out 3-4 percent Muslim votes which is not impossible considering the fact that they have won 5 seats in Bihar --- a fact that they will use during the poll campaigns in Bengal.”
About 24 per cent Muslim voters in Bengal speak Bengali while remaining 6 percent are Urdu-speaking population. The TMC is aware of the fact the BJP would in the final run put everything to polarize the atmosphere in the State.
However another Trinamool leader and senior Minister Firhad Hakim said “there is no difference between BJP and AIMIM both of which are communal outfits and the politically conscious population of Bengal are quite aware of that… Though the AIMIM is planning to fight elections in Bengal to help the BJP in the state their trick would be understood by the people and they will not be able to win a single seat.”
His cabinet colleague and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury too said Bengal Muslims would reject AIMIM as it would not be politically viable for them to vote for that party.
"In Bengal Muslims are a politically conscious people and won't support a party which is an outsider in state politics. They know that MIM is the B-team of the BJP fed and funded by them to keep the communal atmosphere charged.
An MIM leader however said that they would prefer to ignore the statements made by a “nervous” TMC leadership because “they also know that we can leave an impact in a good 20-30 seats in the State.”
Incidentally Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had last year termed the AIMIM as a party of minority extremists who were trying to back another communal party like the BJP in Bengal. When reminded of her statement the MIMI leader said “she will have to pay dearly for her acts in Bengal… the she has started communalization of politics leading to the rise of BJP in this State.”