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Murshidabad TMC rebels pose challenge to party, BJP sniffs opportunity
Many rebel TMC leaders in Murshidabad district are known to be close to Suvendu Adhikari who contested against the chief minister at Nandigram on April 1.
In Bengal’s Murshidabad district, rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders are posing a challenge to the ruling party as independent candidates on three assembly seats. While the TMC remains unperturbed, the BJP feels the infighting may help the saffron camp in the Muslim-majority district, where the party has struggled in the past.
At Suti, Raghunathganj and Jalangi, members of the TMC-run Murshidabad zilla parishad are contesting against their own after they were denied tickets. Polls in the district will be held on April 26 and 29, in the last two of the eight phases.
Muslims comprise 66.28% of Murshidabad’s population, the highest in any district in the state. In 2019, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set a record by winning 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, the saffron camp could not make much progress in Murshidabad, which accounts for 22 of Bengal’s 294 assembly seats.
Political observers feel that a division in Muslim votes may not bring good news for Mamata Banerjee. Murshidabad has traditionally been known as a bastion of the Congress with the Left parties having control over a few pockets. Bengal state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury is the Lok Sabha member from the district’s Berhampore seat. The TMC, however, has benefitted from the defection of Left and Congress MLAs since the last state polls held in 2016.
Many rebel TMC leaders in this district are known to be close to former minister Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP in December last year and contested against the chief minister at Nandigram in East Midnapore district, his home turf, on April 1. Adhikari was the TMC’s poll observer for several districts, including Murshidabad, till he was stripped of that position in 2020.
Bengal’s Muslim population stood at 27.01% during the 2011 census and is projected to have increased to around 30% now. According to surveys done by the TMC and the BJP, a swing in Muslim votes can influence poll results in as many as 120 assembly seats.
At Murshidabad’s Suti assembly seat, which the Congress won in 2016, the TMC has fielded Emani Biswas, the former Congress lawmaker who defected to the ruling party. He won the seat in 2011.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recently quizzed Biswas for suspected involvement in the Nimtita bomb blast in which minister of state for labour Jakir Hossain and more than 20 people were injured on February 17. Biswas was fielded amid resistance from a number of district TMC leaders.
Opposing his candidature, Maidul Islam, the TMC leader in charge of the food and supplies department at Murshidabad zilla parishad, has resigned from the party to contest as an independent candidate.
“There are several complaints of corruption against Biswas. Also, he has never voiced his concern for the plight of bidi factory workers in Suti because he owns a production unit. I am contesting because these poor people approached me,” said Islam.
Biswas did not want to comment on the allegations levelled by Islam.
At Raghunathganj, Nasir Sheikh, another zilla parishad member, is contesting against the TMC’s official candidate. The seat was formed during delimitation before the 2011 polls and the Congress won it.
“The TMC candidate, Md Akhruzzaman, failed to discharge his duties as the local MLA after defecting from the Congress. A huge number of people want to see him go. Hence, I decided to challenge him,” said Sheikh.
Sheikh joined the Congress a few days ago with the hope of getting a ticket.
TMC zilla parishad member Sayed Rafika Sultana is contesting as an independent nominee from the Jalangi seat that the CPI(M) won nine times in a row from 1977 to 2016. The TMC has fielded outgoing MLA Abdur Razzak Mandal, who, too, is a turncoat. A number of local TMC leaders are unhappy with Mandal and Sultana has already started her campaign.
TMC leaders said the party’s former district president, Sagir Hossain, is also likely to contest as an independent candidate from the Bhagabangola seat from where the TMC has fielded Idris Ali. Hossain did not campaign for the official candidate till Saturday.
The TMC’s district spokesperson Goutam Ghosh said, “People cast their votes by seeing the symbol of our party. We are not bothered about these independent candidates.”
The BJP’s Murshidabad north zone organizational unit president Sujit Das said, “Infighting in the TMC is getting exposed before the elections. People have decided to usher in a change. The division of votes may help us.”
