Md. Mijanur Rahman, a tea seller of Kaliachak in Malda district, will vote for Mamata Banerjee in the coming Assembly election. The reason, he says: “Across the State — especially in south Bengal — Didi has done many things for us. If we vote for the Trinamool, perhaps we would receive similar benefits.” A sentiment echoed by Rajya Sabha member of the Trinamool Congress, Ahamed Hassan Imran.
“About 22 per cent of boys and girls who cleared West Bengal Civil Services are Muslims and many are from central Bengal. It is much higher than what it used to be during the Left’s tenure and made possible as the quality of education improved,” he said. The Muslim districts here had experienced “all-round neglect” during the Left rule and would definitely vote for Mamata Banerjee, Mr. Imran argued.
But will central Bengal vote for the Trinamool?
Malda with a minority population of 51.27 per cent and Uttar [North] Dinajpur with 49.92 per cent will go to polls in the second phase on Sunday, while elections will be held in Murshidabad, with a minority population of 66.27 per cent on April 21. Uttar Dinajpur is also considered a Muslim-majority district as it has more Muslims than Hindus, as per the 2011 Census.
There are 43 Assembly seats in these three Muslim majority districts which have challenged the popular myth that Muslims vote en masse for the Trinamool in Bengal. Muslims of three districts have voted — but not en masse — for the Trinamool neither in 2011 nor in 2014.
The Trinamool got three of 43 Assembly segments in Malda, Uttar Dinajpur and Murshidabad in both the elections. In fact, even after Mr. Imran’s advocacy, no one expects the Trinamool to better in central Bengal and the reason was best explained by Sanat Kar, a veteran human rights activist.
Says Mr. Kar: “In Murshidabad [with 22 seats] the Congress plays the politics of appeasing both the maulanas and [Hindu] priests, exactly what Mamata does in the rest of the State. Since it is a Muslim majority district in a Hindu majority country, the politics of using religion tactically works well.”
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has managed to keep the TMC’s house divided for decades in Murshidabad.
“The Trinamool changed its district president many times in Murshidabad due to infighting. I would say, to a large extent, Mr. Adhir Chowdhury engineered the infighting thwarting the Trinamool,” said a senior journalist of Murshidabad.
In Malda (with 12 seats), even 10 years after his death, former Railway Minister Ghani Khan Chowdhury is still a factor.
“I cannot deny that Malda has not forgotten Chowdhury,” Mr. Imran said, adding, “But even then we [Trinamool] are going to do well as nothing happened in Malda during the CPI-M rule.”
Amartya’s reportCuriously, the Trinamool was late to realise that a recent report by the Pratichi Institute of economist Amartya Sen is an advantage for them as it said that the Muslim majority districts have far less access to health care or education compared to the rest of the State.
“When we saw Prof. Sen’s name we thought it was against us and that it is a pro-Left report,” regretted a senior Muslim leader of Trinamool. “But it was a mistake, it was rather anti-Left, as the research was conducted in 2011 on the basis of the Left’s earlier performance, which we realised much later,” he said.
