Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A known social worker and chemistry professor at Dinabandhu Andrews College in Kolkata, Samirul Islam is among the three new names announced by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday as its candidates for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election from West Bengal.
Islam is a post-graduate from IIT-Delhi who has long been involved in social work. He is also the president of Bangla Sanskriti Mancha, an outfit on the fringes of the party that has been working for communal harmony for the past few years.
The group was also part of the anti-NRC/CAA movement in the state in 2019, which devolved into working for the welfare of patients, migrants and the destitute during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. Before the 2021 Assembly polls, the Manch was part of a network of groups that organised campaigns against the BJP.
His organisation enjoys a lot of support among the minorities, especially in districts of Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda, East and West Burdwan, etc.
With Islam’s nomination, the Mamata Banerjee government seems to be hoping to placate civil society groups which have turned against the TMC government, especially in the aftermath of the cascading corruption probes against it, writes The Indian Express.
The 36-year-old also provides a readymade counter to the rise of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) and its young MLA Naushad Siddiqui among Muslim pockets of south Bengal.
