News Analysis India

Tag: West Bengal Polls

  • TMC cries foul after Cleric floats party

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Prominent Islamic cleric Abbas Siddiqui of Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district on Thursday launched a political party named Indian Secular Front (ISF), announcing his intent to enter the fray for the upcoming assembly elections in the state. This is seen in certain quarters as a threat to chip away at the ruling Trinamool Congress’s minority vote base.

    Unveiling the new entity’s green and navy blue flag, Siddiqui said the party will announce later how many seats it will contest in. He did not rule out an alliance with the CPI(M) and Congress.

    “Our party’s prime agenda will be betterment of Muslims and those who belong to other backward classes. The CPI(M) and Congress have sent fillers. Both asked me to float the party first,” said Siddiqui.

    Political observers likened ISF to the AIMIM, which won five seats in the Bihar assembly elections, along the Bengal border region. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had met  Siddiqui at Furfura Sharif earlier this month and said his party would contest elections in Bengal under the leadership of the cleric.

    Asked about TMC’s allegation that ISF’s participation would benefit BJP, Siddiqui said: “I would like to ask the ruling party to answer my question who has brought the BJP in Bengal. The TMC did not keep promises made in 2011. Instead, they triggered communal discord in the state.”

    He also said the door of his party would remain open for all organisations to form a grand alliance and the TMC needed rectification before approaching alliance with the ISF.

    Muslims constitute about 31 per cent of voters in West Bengal and are seen as a vote bank of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

    There are around 125 minority-dominated constituencies and 85 where Muslims voters are above 35 per cent. On his uncle Twaha Siddiqui’s stance against the decision of contesting in elections, Siddiqui said,

    “Most of the clerics in Bengal are with me. If one or two are not, how does it matter?” Twaha is also a cleric in Furfura Sharif. TMC MP Saugata Roy described the development as a strategy of BJP.

    “It is known that AIMIM is working for BJP and the ISF will play the same role in Bengal. But it will not cause any dent on our electoral strength,” he said. BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said ISF’s appearance would increase the pulse rate of chief minister Banerjee.

  • 2021 WB assembly polls: Congress demands 130 seats but Left Front disagrees

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Senior leaders of the Congress and the CPM-led Left Front met here on Sunday and held discussions on seat sharing. The grand old demanded 130 out of 294 assembly seats, which was immediately shot down by the Left.

    LF chairman Biman Bose said two more meetings would be held and the seat-sharing deal would be finalised within January. “There is no misunderstanding between us. Though discussion on seat-sharing is yet to take place again. We will fight the election together to save the state from religious polarization,’’ said Bose.

    Congress state president Adhir Chowdhury, who refused to respond to TMC’s recent call to support the ruling party, said the LF has many partners and they need time to discuss the issue with the other parties.

    Recently, the TMC gave call to other non-BJP parties to support the ruling party to decimate the BJP’s rise in Bengal. “If the LF and Congress are seriously anti-BJP, they should support the Mamata Banerjee in her fight. It is because she is the real face of secular politics against the BJP,’’ said TMC MP and spokesperson Saugata Roy.

    Chowdhury, who never misses an opportunity to blame the ruling party for BJP’s rise in Bengal, said, “We are not interested in supporting the TMC. The ruling party poached our MLAs in the last 10 years. If Mamata Banerjee is serious in fighting the BJP, then she should join the Congress as it the only national party to fight against communalism.’’

    The LF and Congress wanted to share seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections but it fell apart after the CPM refused Congress to contest from Raiganj constituency. It was because CPM’s candidate Mohammad Selim had won in 2014 Lok Sabha election with razor-thin margin of 1,500 votes.

    The LF and Congress had contested in 2016 Assembly elections and Chowdhury’s party emerged as the second-largest political force in Bengal. The Congress had bagged victory in 44 seats and the LF in 26.

    “Our voters had voted for Congress candidates but in many seats, our candidates were not supported by Congress’s voters. This was why faced the debacle despite the seat-sharing deal with the Congress,’’ said a CPM leader. 

  • Amit Shah meets Bengal team to sharpen victory focus

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Union Minister for Home Affairs and the former BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday held a review meeting the core group of the party from West Bengal to take stock of the preparations for the Assembly elections. With the BJP eying high profile exodus from the ranks of the ruling TMC, Shah will be undertaking a tour of the state later this month to boost the morale of party workers.

    The West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, state in-charge and the party’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, the party vice president Mukul Roy were among the senior functionaries who attended the review meeting with Shah. Shah, who’s closely monitoring the BJP’s poll preparations in West Bengal, has been taking a monthly review meeting to streamline the party’s campaign in the state.

    Sources said that the thrust of the meeting was to take stock of the ground feedback and sharpen the target to win 200 Assembly seats in the state. A senior BJP functionary said that the party’s bid to challenge the ruling TMC in the rural parts of the state was on the agenda of the review meeting as the saffron outfit has set out to hold 40,000 meetings in the rural habitations of the state.

    Shah is also learnt to be making a clear attempt to ensure that the ranks of the saffron outfit remains united in the state amid inflow the leaders and their followers from the ranks of the other parties. BJP chief J P Nadda had visited the state after recovering from the Covid-19 to kick off the rural outreach and ek mutthi chawal campaign to connect with the electorate in the villages.

    Villages in focusA senior functionary said that the party’s bid to challenge the ruling TMC in the rural parts of the state was on the agenda of the review meeting as the saffron outfit has set out to hold 40,000 meetings in the rural habitations of the state

  • Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora to visit poll-bond Assam, West Bengal next week

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, along with Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar, will visit Assam and West Bengal early next week to take stock of preparations for Assembly polls slated for later this year.

    Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain is already in West Bengal to meet officials. This is Jain’s second visit to West Bengal. Another EC official is in Assam to take stock of the situation there.

    “The two would brief the Commission on Friday and the Commission would visit Assam and West Bengal in that order early next week,” a functionary said.

    It is usual for the Commission to visit poll-bound states before announcing the schedule of Assembly elections.

    But it had visited Bihar after announcing the dates for the last elections. The terms of the legislative assemblies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry are coming to an end on different dates in May and June this year.

    The Assembly elections are likely to take place sometime in April-May. The Election Commission had on Tuesday discussed with Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla the availability and requirement of central security forces for the upcoming Assembly elections.

    The meeting held at the EC headquarters here was “primarily to discuss requirement vis-à-vis availability of central armed police forces (CAPFs), and related matters, for the upcoming Assembly Elections to the States of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and the Union Territory of Puducherry,” the poll panel had said.

  • Alternative policies needed to foil BJP, TMC efforts to turn Bengal polls bipolar event: Sitaram Yechury

    Yechury said that in order to maintain a democratic and secular system, it is imperative to keep the BJP away from the power and defeat it in the elections.