Fringe Smells Blood

The possibility of a close contest ­between Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the BJP has spurred several political entities to beeline for their stakes in West Bengal—one of the most high-voltage assembly elections in recent years. The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimin (AIMIM) threw down the gauntlet recently, while the Shiv Sena and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) followed suit. The poll pot frothed over when an Islamic cleric, Abbas Siddiqi, said he would launch a party this January. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi met Siddiqi at his home and hinted at an alliance in which the Hyderabad-headquartered party would play junior.

Soon after, Congress’s Bengal ­leaders visited Siddiqi, apparently ­trying to strike a deal. The Congress has an alliance with the Left and seat-sharing discussions have started. The attempt to reel in Siddiqi may only succeed if the party manages to keep him away from the AIMIM.

The Shiv Sena, whose presence in Bengal is limited to a few signboards, has plans to field candidates in as many as 100 of the state’s 294 ­assembly seats. The AIMIM has kept its numbers close to its chest, but the party’s state organisers expect ­between 50 and 100 seats. The JMM might contest in the tribal-dominated southwestern and northern parts, where the BJP has recorded a ­significant rise in recent years. The JMM’s chief slogan would be ‘to ­expose’ the BJP’s anti-tribal nature and demand a separate religion code for Sarna in the decadal census.

There are also talks of the launch of another party, seeking votes on the rights of the Bengali people, to be ann­ounced soon. While the Trinamool is learnt to have started work to try and defuse the initiative, the BJP seems to have succeeded in restraining a group of right-wing leaders from launching a political party seeking votes in the name of Hindutva.

For her part, chief minister Banerjee has upped her game too, ­announcing she would contest from Nandigram, the constituency of former Trinamool heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari who recently switched over to the BJP. Nandigram has huge recall value—it’s the place where Banerjee spearheaded a land protest in 2007-08 that pivoted her to power in 2011. Suvendu was her general then.

By Snigdhendu Bhattacharya in Calcutta