AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi met West Bengal’s young Muslim leader Abbas Siddiqui on Sunday to throw up speculations of a new front ahead of the much-talked-about 2021 State Assembly election.

Owaisi, who had confirmed that he would field candidates in Bengal after his party’s success in Bihar elections last year, is on a two-day tour of the poll-bound state.

Siddiqui, a Pirzada (religious leader) from Futura Sharif, who was once a vocal supporter of Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, has been speaking out against the state government over a host of issues of late.

A rumour that he is planning to float his own minority outfit has been grabbing attention in sections Bengal politics in recent time.

However, a report by Bengali daily Sangbad Pratidin on Sunday stated that Siddiqui might contest the Bengal election from an AIMIM ticket.

“Owaisi wanted to keep the meeting a secret as we were apprehensive that the state government might have stopped him from exiting the airport. From Kolkata airport, he went straight to Hooghly to meet Abbas Siddiqui. He will leave for Hyderabad this afternoon,” AIMIM state secretary Zameerul Hassan told reporters.

The Hyderabad-headquartered party had declared that it would filed candidates mainly in two Dinajpur districts, Maldah, Murshidabad and the two 24 Parganas districts due to the inflated Muslim populations there.

Interestingly, North Dinajpur borders with Bihar’s Seemanchal region which was the centre of AIMIM’s accomplishments there.

Ever since the results had come out in Bihar AIMIM was victim of a ferocious attack, mostly by Congress leaders, who called it BJP’s “B-Team”. It was circulated that they cut away Mahagathbandhan’s vote share which indirectly helped the NDA.

Meanwhile, AIMIM had been able to strengthen it’s organisation at the ground level to an impressive extent since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The party workers wer further bolstered by the Bihar success.

But large-scale defections to TMC in the last one month or so has hit the party’s organisation strength at its core. Several senior leaders from AIMIM’s Bengal brigade changed loyalty and took refuge under the shadow of Mamata Banerjee.

Thus, Owaisi’s visit to Siddiqui becomes relevant as it comes in the backdrop of his own party leaders’ betrayal.