The Left Front and Congress are chalking out ways to counter the emergence of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Bengal.
“We have chalked out a detailed plan,” a Congress leader said at the end of two-hour meeting with the Left Front leadership adding the alliance partners would reach out to the Muslim leaders and eminent personalities besides conducting special outreach programme on the National Minorities Day on December 18.
In fact Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir Chowdhury and state Opposition Leader Abdul Mannan met Muslim religious leader Toha Siddique of Furfura Sharief and appealed to the community to stand by the secular forces.
Calling the AIMIM a B Team of the BJP Chowdhury also the Congress leader in Lok Sabha said, “We met Toha Siddique and appealed to the minority community through him not to get confused by the forces who are B-team of the BJP.”
Alleging that AIMIM chief Asadudding Owaisi’s sole aim was to divide the minority votes in Bengal, Chowdhury iterated “AIMIM is the B-team of the BJP, whose sole aim is to divide the Muslim votes and cause damage to the secular parties.”
AIMIM have been eyeing 35 out of the 76 seats which the Left-Congress alliance had won from Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur in 2016 Assembly elections. “AIMIM’s main target is not Trinamool Congress --- and definitely not the BJP --- but the Left-Congress alliance which are really fighting the saffron communalism in India,” a senior Congress leader said. According to pollsters the minorities create a deciding edge in about 125 seats in the State.
In a related development the State Chief Electoral Office in response to an Election Commission’s query has informed the top poll panel that it will need adequate number of central forces to conduct the next year’s elections.