In West Bengal, the battle for Muslim vote

With the emergence of the ISF, there is talk of how the TMC could lose out on the support of the Muslims. Disillusionment with the TMC stems largely from anger over lack of jobs and the continued dismal living conditions of the Muslims and issues of representation

After he graduated from college in 2005, Munshi Bakibillah hoped to land a job with the government. What followed was a laborious exercise of filling out forms and writing exams. But there was no job.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election campaign rally, ahead of West Bengal assembly polls, in Purulia district on March 18. (File photo)

“I was told that I would need to pay up anywhere between ₹10 to 15 lakh as bribe to get a job. My family does not own enough land that could be sold for raising that kind of money so I gave up on the idea of a government job,” he said.

Bakibillah now earns his livelihood by offering private tuitions to children in the Tona village that falls in the Bhangar block of South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.

His friend, Azhar Lahuati, who runs a small fish farm, dropped out of college because the family needed money to sustain. “My investment is about ₹90 per kilo of fish and I manage to sell at ₹80 per kilo. The losses are becoming unsustainable. The government has not provided any facility for a cold storage. Vegetables and fish produced here have to be transferred to the city, but there are no means of ensuring it is not spoilt on the way,” he said.

In this village with a population of about 9,000 as per Census 2011, most people are engaged in cultivation, informal labour jobs, and at the brick kiln in the area. A majority of the male adults have to travel outside the district for driving and other low-paying jobs.

In 2017, Bhangar was the site of a massive protest against a project by the Powergrid Corporation of India, as residents opposed high-tension lines passing over their land. The clashes that lasted for days were compared to the anti-land acquisition agitation in Singur and Nandigram.

“That problem is now solved. We were misled into believing that the power lines will affect our fields. But for years Didi’s sarkar (Mamata Banerjee’s government) promised jobs and spoke about the upliftment of our community. All that she has done is for the Maulanas,” said Bakibuillah.

Pointing to a blacktop road being laid out in the village, he said the government has been nudged into taking action, because it senses “support for Abbas Bhai”. He was referring to Abbas Siddiqui, the cleric from the shrine of Furfura Sharif, who has floated the Indian Secular Front (ISF) that political watchers say has the capacity to cause a dent in the Trinamool Congress (TMC)‘s vote share.

The sentiment is echoed in Dhaulagrah in Howarh. “Abbas Bhai has assured us that he will ensure that government he is part of will provide jobs for the Muslims and also protect us if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asks us to prove our nationality,” said a local shopkeeper, requesting anonymity.

For the TMC, a set of questions

In West Bengal, Muslims account for 27% of the population as per the last census and are known to have supported the Left earlier, and then the TMC in recent elections. In the 2016 assembly polls, TMC, which won 211 of the 294 seats, was said to have won 98 seats largely because of the Muslim vote factor. Muslims account for 20-30% of the population in these seats, said a TMC functionary.

With the emergence of the ISF, there is talk of how the TMC could lose out on the support of the Muslims. Disillusionment with the TMC stems largely from anger over lack of jobs and the continued dismal living conditions of the Muslims and issues of representation.

“When Nandigram happened, Muslims who were already deprived were worried that they will also lose their land. So they supported TMC; but over the years, there is not much it has done for the Muslims. Issues of education, social justice and aspirations were not addressed,” said Abdul Matin, a professor at the Jadhavpur University.

The absence of Muslims from decision making is another issue that the community has flagged. There is chatter about how the TMC has reduced the number of Muslims candidates to counter the BJP’s charge of appeasement against her. The BJP increasing the number of its candidates is dismissed as optics.

“Muslims have benefited from the social welfare programmes as any other community, but there is no Muslim leadership; why is there no important portfolio given to Muslims?” said Sabir Ahmed, a researcher, at Pratichi Trust.

Mamata’s “Muslim-friendly image” has been partly enforced by the BJP, but also by her own policies, he said. “I have been trying to use RTI to get the data to indicate the employment details of Muslims in services, but the government has stopped staff census in 2015-16,” Ahmed said.

TMC’s Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy says the problem of unemployment is not restricted to the Muslims alone. “Unemployment is a problem in the whole state. Whatever Mamata Banerjee has been able to do in her own way, through corporations under her, she has done it. She has been accused of appeasement for recognising the Urdu language and giving allowances to Imams and Muezzins,” he said.

The electoral mood

At the same time, for a range of factors, voters from the community are banking on TMC or see it as a more viable alternative.

While they are disappointed with the TMC for not improving their lot, the spectre of National Register of Citizens looms large in the consciousness of Muslims. Many within the community are hoping that the TMC would be able to offer a shield from possible detention camps or worse, deportation — which, they fear, would be the outcome of the NRC process. The BJP has said that the NRC is not on the formal agenda.

“Muslims aren’t the only community worried about NRC. There has been a newfound solidarity that has emerged between the Muslims and other social groups after the CAA movement,” said Ahmed.

There is also a paucity of viable options across the state for the community.

Matin does not see the ISF as a pan-Bengal entity. “In the rural areas where Muslims need jobs and social justice, they have a connection with Abbas Siddiqui. There is also an inherent fear about the BJP; so in the South Bengal’s rural areas among the so-called lower caste and class, there is a connection with the ISF. In North Bengal, Muslims in areas such as Murshidabad, Malad, Dinajpur are divided between the Congress and the TMC,” he said.

For its part, the BJP is hoping to benefit from the TMC-ISF fight for the Muslim vote, and has been assiduously focusing attention on the TMC’s sops for the community, such as monetary help extended to clerics. Pictures of Banerjee with her head covered in a hijab, her presence at prayers have been the BJP’s arsenal to underscore how the TMC “appeased the Muslims”.

“When the high court set aside the TMC’s decision of giving money to the imams, they found a way to pay through the Waqf board. 2012 onwards, she paid a yearly sum of ₹10 crore to the Urdu Academy while the Hindi Academy got a one-time grant of ₹ 5crore. During the lockdown she used to visit the Muslim dominated areas and give speeches on the loudspeaker,” said Shishir Bajoria, the state executive member of the BJP.

While the TMC admits that the ISF will cut votes from its share, Sougata Roy said the dent will not make a difference to the TMC’s electoral fortunes. “He (Siddiqui) has no influence across the state and will not impact the election,” he said, limiting their role to cutting votes.

But ISF functionary Abbas Samsul asserted that the party’s growing presence on the ground has made the big players apprehensive. “The Constitution of India gives us the right to contest. We are fighting the elections on the issues of education, healthcare, inflation and employment. And to those who call us vote cutters, I have a question, there was no ISF in 2019, so how did the BJP go up from two to 18 MPs?” he said.