The political diaspora in the state of Bengal has always played an intriguing knuckle between the voters and political parties. However, the ‘Vote Bank’ bonanza is a trump card that persistently slashes down a chunk of votes on either side of the ruling or opposition. At present, the ongoing fiery turbulence amidst the saffron sage and Trinamool Congress prior to Vidhan Sabha election is going too far than expected. Meanwhile, in the jinx of green and saffron brigade, MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi has sought to touch the land of Bengal and withstand against Mamata Banerjee in the upcoming election, whom he suggest to be degrading in terms of keeping the minority group alienated from development and welfare opportunities. In a recurring hit back, TMC supremo allegedly Owaisi to serve as a B-Team of the Bhartiya Janata Party in Bihar elections and trying to implement a similar game plan in Bengal. Refusing AIMIM as a threat for Bengal and TMC, Miss Banerjee ruled out Owaisi’s allegations, accusing him to be communal and a non-secular party sold in the hands of BJP.
The recent meet of Owaisi with Pir Zada of Furfura Sharif Abbas Sidiqqui has confirmed the speculation of MIM to contest in Bengal’s Muslim dominated regions. Abbasuddin Sidiqqui, the Muslim Cleric of Furfura Sharif one of the acclaimed holy shrines in Hoogly district of Bengal has a mass reach out among the Bengali Muslims. The districts including Maldah, Uttar Dinajpur, Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas and Howrah have 90 percent of densely populated Bengali speaking Muslims, out of which TMC has strong hold on all of them. The Pir Zada of Furfura Sharif, once a loyal preacher of Mamata Banerjee has now retaliated to form a new political party claiming that the ruling government has utilised Muslim Vote Bank to secure its powering position. After welcoming Owaisi’s assistance, Pir Zada of Sufi hereditary has shown confidence on tumbling down Mamata from power.
Right after the stupendous win of five seats in Bihar, AIMIM aimed to forge taking down its footprints in West Bengal. And Muslim segregated votes add on to 30 percent of the vote share in Bengal. Out of the 294 Vidhan Sabha Assembly seats, Muslim populous has dominance on 100 of them, resulting Owaisi to increase the bottleneck competition. But, the possibility of Owaisi winning seats in Bengal is a formidable question crumbling into the minds of political analyst and urban voters. A state that gave birth to pioneering politicians and created revolutions in political warfare envisage votes through emotion, outsheding compliance of development and working culture. Since 2008, Asaduddin Owaisi deep rooted his political submissive in the state of Hyderabad by introducing the ‘Hyderabad Model’ of working. In his chain of work, complete transparency between the MLAs and voters are stringently maintained. Nevertheless, the popularity of Owaisi remained unhurt due to ‘Easy Accessibility’ of the leader along with 7-8 MLAs at Darusalam where anyone irrespective of the religion, cast or creed from the constituency can come with a complaint, eventually resorting to a quick solution.
The BJP that’s trying nail and tooth to sweep the proposed election with more than 200 seats has managed to breakthrough into Bengal against the decade long barbarism and proved itself to be the only contending opposition. Whereas, on the contrary, Owaisi known for his precise planning haven’t shown much ground activities. Therefore, the question inevitably stands out will the influx of Islam secularism infuse its wings into Bengal soil or wind up empty handed.
Rituparna Dutta