In what could give a creased forehead to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Indian Secular Front (ISF) chief Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui of Furfura Sharief — the largest Muslim religious congregation in Bengal — on Sunday openly asked the “people of Bengal” to “vote for the Left Front as a mark of gratitude for their humility to leave 30 seats for us” in the coming Assembly elections.
“The Left Front leaders have showed humility to accept most of our demands conceding 30 seats to us and so the ISF will support them to throw out the communal politics of the BJP and its agent Mamata Banerjee … the ISF will support the Left Front,” Pirzada who attended the Left Front-sponsored mammoth rally at the historic Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata said.
“Mamata Banerjee did more harm to Muslims by creating a Hindu-Muslim divide and allowing the BJP to enter the State with its agenda … she is a bigger enemy of the Muslims,” the Muslim cleric earlier said.
The mega rally was also attended by senior Congress leaders like party Lok Sabha Leader Adhir Chowdhury, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Rupesh Baghel and Jitendra Prasad. Among other star speakers were CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, his politburo colleagues, Suryakanto Mishra, Md Salim and Biman Bose and JNU students’ wing leader Aishi Ghosh.
Siddiqui’s support for the Left beomces significant against the backdrop of high percentage of Muslim votes in Bengal accounting for about 28-30 percent — dominating the voting pattern of about 125 seats.
The role of Furfura Sharief clerics also becomes important as they have an influence over the majority of Bengali-speaking Muslims of the State.
Reacting to the “alleged grand success” of the rally, Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim said, “The people do not want know to know who supports whom … they want to know who will stand by them … and that is Mamata Banerjee … no amount of effort to divide anti-BJP votes will work as the minorities are an intelligent lot and they have seen the fate of Bihar elections a few months ago.”
In an electoral atmosphere almost vertically divided between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP, the waning Left had been trying to stitch together a Third Front comprising non-BJP, non-TMC parties including the Congress.
Siddiqui’s support to the Left promises to bring back the minority votes to its fold but it also threatens Chief Minister with a realistic loss of Muslim votes — her electoral mainstay for the past two decades — a factor that can eventually make the BJP’s job easier, a senior State BJP leader and a former MLA said adding “this rally was the rally not of the Left but of the Bhaijan Siddiqui) … let the thousands of Hindu refugees who were forced to leave Bangladesh take a decision.”
Siddiqui who supported the Left however issued a veiled warning to the Congress saying “those who will extend a hand of friendship will get a positive reply otherwise not.” Siddiqui has been unhappy with the Congress which is reluctant to part with 10 seats from its share to the ISF.
After initial rounds of talks the Marxists have left 92 seats out of 294 for the Congress and 30 seats for the ISF. The ISF has been asking for additional 10 seats from Congress’ share.
In the rally Siddiqui said, “People must be thinking that why I asked you to vote for the Left and why I did not mention the Congress … I have come here to extract our genuine rights and not to appease someone … those who will extend their hands of friendship we will definitely back them.”
In private he said, “I have heard that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi want this alliance to be in place but some people (read Adhir Chowdhury) are acting as irritants,” Siddiqui said adding “we have a few days left before we will start campaigning. Now it is their job to take a decision.”
When contacted Chowdhury said, “Congress is not dependant on any one. It takes its own decision. Our talks with the Left are not over yet. We do not know how much we are getting so how can we part with any seat for the ISF. First let us be clear about our own seat share…”
Meanwhile the leaders lambasted Narendra Modi and Baghel attacked the Narendra Modi Government for its “anti-people approach” and selling out the national assets to a few corporate houses.
“This Government has decided to squeeze the farmers and common people dry as can be seen not only from the triple anti-farmer laws passed by them but also the rising petro-prices and cooking gas,” Chowdhury said More than 8 lakh people attended the rally, Biman Bose later said.