Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly will be held in two phases – April 23 and April 29.
KOLKATA — AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday alleged that the ruling TMC and other parties used Muslims of West Bengal for votes but did nothing for the community’s development.
Owaisi, while addressing a poll rally at Naoda in Murshidabad district in support of candidates of Humayun Kabir-led Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP), also claimed that in the past 50 years, members of the Muslim community had voted for the Congress, Left Front and the TMC, but their condition did not improve, PTI reported.
“For the sake of Muslims in West Bengal getting greater representation in political decision-making, and for their true development, we have joined hands with Kabir. Together, we will give a jolt to Mamata Banerjee and her party,” he asserted.
“The time has come to elect leaders from the Muslim community, who can ensure your economic development,” Owaisi said.
“Muslims form about 30 per cent of the population here. But how many Muslims are in state government jobs? Around seven per cent. The time has come to stop the exploitation of Muslims. To ensure that, elect leaders from yourselves who can only ensure our economic development while following the secular, inclusive spirit of India which is being violated by both BJP and TMC,” he told a large gathering.
Accusing West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee of practising hypocrisy regarding discrimination and atrocities against Muslims, he alleged that she has a tacit understanding with BJP and “her game plan stands exposed now before everyone.”
He quashed the charges of the Trinamool Congress that AIMIM and AJUP are in the electoral fray to cut down the vote share of the TMC and help the BJP win.
“Both the BJP and the TMC are the same to us. They are two sides of the same coin. As I repeatedly said, our alliance wishes Muslims to have a voice and fight for their rights,” he said.
“When hundreds were killed in the Gujarat riots in the early 2000s, Mamata Didi, who was then a BJP ally, did not utter a single word. The same Mamata Banerjee hurled papers at the Lok Sabha Speaker in 2005 while making allegations of large-scale infiltration in West Bengal during the Left Front rule,” Owaisi said.
Now, Modi and Amit Shah are speaking in the same language to disenfranchise Muslim citizens. Can Mamata Didi disown her earlier comments when she speaks at rallies? the Hyderabad MP asked.
“You had voted for other parties in the past. This time, vote in favour of your brother Kabir and his party and the AIMIM candidates who will be fielded as part of the alliance to consolidate the entire Muslim vote and expose the hypocrisy and nexus between the TMC and the BJP,” he told the crowd.
Kabir, a suspended TMC MLA who later floated the AJUP, said the overwhelming presence of members of the community at the rally was indicative of the disillusionment and anger towards the TMC.
In an apparent reference to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, he said, “The prince, who was born with a silver spoon and has no grassroots political experience, moves around with 100 security personnel, and exhorted people at a rally in Naoda that if anyone is unhappy with his party’s candidate, he should think that Abhishek is the real candidate.”
“I do, hereby, declare that our candidate will defeat the TMC candidate in Naoda by 50,000 votes. We take it as a challenge as Abhishek has staked his personal honour for winning the seat and we will defeat his candidate,” Kabir said.
He said the alliance plans to contest 182 seats in the 294-member assembly, and “will teach both TMC and BJP a lesson they deserve”.
The AIMIM-AJUP combine enters the electoral fray at a time when West Bengal’s minority vote bank, long considered the backbone of the TMC’s electoral dominance, is showing signs of churn.
Minority voters influence the outcome in more than 110 of the 294 assembly constituencies.
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly will be held in two phases — April 23 and April 29. Votes will be counted on May 4.
