‘Who else is there to vote for?’ — why Muslim clerics are rallying driving TMC in West Bengal
Some fully grasp instantly what he implies. For those people who don’t, Qasmi tells them, “Vote for the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Who else is there to vote for?”
With elections for West Bengal’s 42 parliamentary seats set to be held in 7 phases from 19 April to 1 June, like Qasmi, imams throughout the state are rallying driving Main Minister Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. Numerous see TMC as the bulwark against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindutva politics. “It’s vital for Muslims to realise the value of their votes. For this cause, we’re urging our group to band together powering a secular social gathering that can safeguard their upcoming. And in our eyes, TMC is that get together,” states Mohammad Yahya, head of the Bengal Imam Association — a body of clerics that counts 22,000 imams among the its customers.According to the 2011 Census, Muslims account for 27 % of West Bengal’s inhabitants — the premier minority in the point out. Given that it very first swept to electrical power in the point out in 2011, the TMC has counted this huge citizens amid its main voters.To garner votes for the social gathering, Muslim clerics are organizing to keep a central committee meeting immediately after Eid to devise “effective ways” for voter outreach. This conference will have 7 imams from big mosques across the point out in attendance.
“The notion is to get to a consensus on which get together is useful for the neighborhood. Right after the assembly, its minutes will be sent to the district imam bodies across the condition and meetings will be held in just about every district on how the group must vote this time close to,” says Yahya. Abdul Matin, who teaches political science at Jadavpur University, calls it TMC’s “imam politics”. The point out govt experienced in August 2023 enhanced the imambhata (honorarium) for imams and muezzins — people today tasked with calling Muslims to prayer — by Rs 500, bringing their payment to Rs 3,000 and Rs 1,500, respectively. According to Matin, by way of these kinds of guidelines, the TMC has been in a position to develop a “well-structured” community of Muslim clerics to engage rural Muslims.
“These imams have a selected command amid the masses, in particular among rural Bengali very poor, who are motivated by their speeches. So, as a result of the Waqf Board, speeches, and programmes such as Quran recitation, the TMC is achieving out to the Muslims,” he tells ThePrint.Matin compares the marriage involving the TMC and the state’s imams to a “patron-shopper relationship”. Imams, he says, regularly participate in TMC’s programmes — from the all-faith rally organised at the very same time as the Ram Temple consecration in January to its iftar functions. “The TMC knows how to seize the creativity of Muslims,” he claims. “This way, the get together can hold the imams satisfied devoid of participating with serious concerns this sort of as social justice.”
On its aspect, TMC promises that minorities experience harmless with it. “That’s why they want to vote for us. Our party has under no circumstances differentiated centered on faith or caste,” states TMC chief and West Bengal’s Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.
Also Read: From ‘party society’ to ‘bahubali’ modern society — how Bengal adjusted, nevertheless remained same from Remaining to TMC rule
‘Voting for TMC a compulsion for Muslims’
In 2019, the TMC gained 22 seats of the state’s 42 parliamentary seats — 12 down from the 34 seats it won in 2014. On the other hand, the BJP designed significant gains, scoring 18 seats, up from two in 2014. Meanwhile, the Congress won two seats, and the Communist Bash of India (Marxist) obtained none.
Amongst the two major seats that the BJP managed to safe ended up Maldaha North and Raiganj, both of which have an approximated Muslim inhabitants of approximately 50 p.c. For a lot of Muslims, the shrinking area for them in the political and social discourse is a make any difference of grave problem. Qasmi clarifies the Muslims’ predicament in Bengal as a result: “Muslims are in the center, encircled by various trenches. Whichever course they shift, they will slide. The thought is to detect the the very least perilous path.”Qasmi’s information to vote for TMC has trapped with Muslim voters in Kolkata’s Raj Bazar and Kidderpore. They all cite 1 major rationale for buying the TMC — Mamata Banerjee’s pushback from the BJP. “It’s only Mamata didi for us,” 36-calendar year-outdated Abdul Gaffar states. “Have you viewed any CM file a grievance in opposition to the NIA (Nationwide Investigation Company)? She is the only one who can take on BJP one-handedly.”
He’s referring to the West Bengal Police’s FIR against NIA officers for allegedly molesting the spouse of arrested TMC leader Monobrata Jana earlier this thirty day period all through an investigation into a 2022 blast case. Matin thinks that provided the latest political weather, voting for TMC is a “compulsion for Muslims”.“Creation of a secular-communal binary has benefitted the two TMC and BJP. The clergy and center-class Muslims have a job to enjoy in this. The thought is that 1 should opt for between the larger and lesser evil, and a substantial segment of clergy is doing that for TMC.”Divided loyalties
People of the Muslim-dominated Bhangar in South 24 Parganas are torn this election.
This assembly seat arrives less than the Jadavpur parliamentary constituency, which the TMC has retained considering that 2009.For Bhangar’s Muslim people, their loyalties are about to be examined. In a single corner stands the Indian Secular Front (ISF), whose chairman Mohammad Naushad Siddiqui, scored the party’s sole assembly seat in 2021.
TMC flags at Bhangar assembly constituency | Sagrika Kissu | ThePrint
Siddiqui is a pirzada (custodian) of the mazar (shrine) at Furfura Sharif in Hooghly — regarded the most revered mazar in the region immediately after Ajmer Sharif. His celebration has fielded Noor Alam Khan this election. In the other corner, is the TMC, whose prospect is a non-Muslim — movie and Television actor Sayoni Ghosh.
For citizens, the decision is a tricky one particular. But Mohammad Abdul Halim Mullah, the maulana of the regional mosque, believes there’s only a single selection. “I just can’t force persons to vote for TMC. I can just make a passionate enchantment. But they (individuals) need to have to have an understanding of that although Siddiqui is a Muslim and a pirzada, his solitary seat just can’t safe the long run of Muslims. Because he has turn out to be an MLA, no function has been completed in Bhangar. He has not been ready to satisfy his promises,” he claims.Nonetheless, 25-year-outdated Mohammad disagrees. Siddiqui, he thinks, won’t be capable to get any operate finished so lengthy as the TMC and its bahubalis (strongmen) are in electricity. “They will crush him. They won’t enable him to perform and that is what happening,” he says.
Then there are those people who accuse the MLA of remaining an “agent” of the BJP. Noor Islam, who owns a shop, thinks Siddiqui intends to consume into Muslim votes and finally secure the BJP’s victory. “How else does he have central power stability? Why is the Centre furnishing him with this kind of security? Muslims are not fools to tumble for any person. This time Bhangar will vote for the TMC,” Islam claims.The Bhangar MLA was furnished central stability past calendar year following he approached the Calcutta Substantial Court docket declaring a threat to his everyday living. Mohammad Yahya echoes Noor Islam’s sentiments, contacting ISF a “farce”. The party, he says, doesn’t have substantially existence in Bengal. “Even if they go solo, they will only reduce into votes the way Owaisi (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi) does.”
Like Professor Matin, the cleric also thinks that for Muslims, voting for the TMC is a immediate final result of the “lack of credible choices”. “We have viewed how Muslims are staying addressed in BJP-ruled states and we are unable to permit that come about in West Bengal. Muslims no for a longer period align with the CPI (M)’s politics following the horror of 34 years (of their rule). The Congress has no construction in the state. So we are only remaining with TMC,” Yahya explained.TMC and Muslim votes
Because 2019, the BJP has been making substantial inroads into the point out. With the party leveraging the building of the Ram temple in Ayodhya to safe the Hindu votes this time about, Muslim votes have become even additional critical to the TMC.On its part, the TMC has been building significant attempts to retain this vote bank. For instance, following it lost Sagardighi, an assembly seat with a major Muslim populace, to the Congress-Still left incorporate, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took charge of the state’s minority affairs and madrasa training departments.
In May perhaps 2023, the Congress MLA from Sagardighi, Bayron Biswas, switched around to the TMC.In accordance to political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Muslims learnt from their errors in 2019 and stood decisively guiding the TMC in the 2021 assembly polls in Muslim-greater part districts of Murshidabad, Malda and Uttar Dinajpur as well as the Muslim-concentrated patches of Nadia, Birbhum, South 24-Parganas and North-24 Parganas districts.Traditionally, it was for the initial time since the inception of the TMC that the get together won in excess of the districts of Murshidabad and Malda — regular Congress strongholds.Booth-sensible evaluation of the 2021 assembly election revealed that in Muslim-concentrated booths, the TMC bagged 70-80 percent of polled votes, claims Bhattacharya.
The Sagardighi byelection hinted at a shift of Muslim votes from TMC to the Still left-Congress alliance but the Sagardighi MLA’s subsequent defection to the TMC and other harm command measures, which includes getting a solid posture from the Ram temple consecration and CAA, has probably gained the TMC a vast majority of the Muslims’ have faith in back again, he adds.In accordance to former Jadavpur MLA and CPI (M) chief Sujan Chakraborty, the TMC is hoping to build a “religious binary” in the point out. “TMC is trying to generate concern psychosis among the Muslims to acquire votes. The bash and BJP are supporting each and every other divide votes. And now they are working with clerics to do that,” he says. He, nevertheless, adds that he couldn’t “comment on why clerics are accomplishing this”.
West Bengal BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya agrees, calling the TMC’s politics “divisive”. Muslims, he suggests, should not ignore the “political murders” of the past 9 decades. “I want to urge Muslims to assume ahead of performing exercises their voting legal rights. In the very last 9 a long time, 90 % of the victims of political murders have been Muslims. How can they neglect that? They (Muslims) should really cast votes as Indians and not as Muslims,” he tells ThePrint. (Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Go through: Why Indian Secular Front broke up with the Still left and Congress in West Bengal
