BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj has made the headlines again with his wish for “strength” to Muslim leader and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
The Unnao lawmaker claimed that Owaisi’s party would help BJP win in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal like it did in Bihar election last year.
“It is God’s grace. May God give him strength. He helped us in Bihar and will help us (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh panchayat and Assembly polls and also in West Bengal,” he told media.
The Hyderabad-headquartered party has already declared that it would field 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 had been circulated that they cut away Mahagathbandhan’s vote share which indirectly helped the NDA.
AIMIM’s advent in Bengal, many believe, will have an adverse impact on Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) minority vote bank. However, the West Bengal’s governning party has refuted such speculations.
“Owaisi won’t have any effect in West Bengal. He is an Urdu-speaking Muslim and majority of Muslims in Bengal are Bengali-speaking. That’s why he is meeting Abbas Siddiqui,” veteran TMC leader Saugata Roy had said.
Bengal BJP, on the other hand, has been maintaining a soft stance on AIMIM, saying that it was Siddiqui and Owaisi’s democratic right to contest an election and that BJP could do nothing to stop them.
During his last visit to West Bengal, Owaisi had confirmed that his party AIMIM wouls contest in the West Bengal Assembly Elections under the leadership of Abbas Siddiqui.
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, if Siddiqui will join AIMIM or float his own party and form an alliance with it is yet to be known.
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 organisational strength at its core. Several senior leaders from AIMIM’s Bengal brigade changed loyalty and took refuge under the shadow of Mamata Banerjee.