Mamata Banerjee has reasons to be wary of Asaduddin Owaisi’s Bengal mission

Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee’s recent potshots at Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) come in the wake of the Hyderabad-based party’s growing activities in the state over the past one year, especially since the 2019 Lok Sabha election results.

AIMIM’s recent victory in an Assembly bye-election in Bihar’s Kishanganj (along the north Bengal border) and its growth in Jharkhand’s Pakur district (along Bengal’s southwestern border) has further fuelled the party’s campaign to gain a foothold in Bengal and has added to the TMC’s concerns.

Between Monday and Wednesday Banerjee called the AIMIM, without naming it, an example of “Muslim extremists,” “agents of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)” and “outsiders” and urged Bengal’s Muslims not to listen to the party.

AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Owaisi, returned the compliments and accused

Banerjee of failing Bengal’s Muslims despite getting their fullest support.

The AIMIM has not been formally launched in Bengal, even though preparations started two years ago as part of its aim of having at least one MLA in every state. AIMIM presently has seven seats in Telangana Assembly, three in Maharashtra and one in Bihar.

According to AIMIM’s organisers in Bengal, more than 50 street corner meetings have been held over the past six months in the districts of Murshidabad, Malda, North Dinajpur, Birbhum, South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas and Cooch Behar, where the share of Muslim population stand at 66.27%, 51.27%, 49.92%, 37.06%, 35.57%, 25.82% and 25.54%, respectively, according to the census of 2011.

Many of these meetings witnessed packed crowds and the photos were shared on social media.

“Our organisational setup, which includes district committees, is ready. We have not announced the name of the state president but the moment we name him, he will have his team in the districts ready,” said Syed Asim Waqar, AIMIM national spokesperson who is in charge of Bengal, adding that Owaisi will visit the state “very soon”.

Speakers at AIMIM’s street corner meetings included people belonging to the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe communities. They lambasted the BJP and TMC and called for a Dalit chief minister in Bengal. Though no organiser has any designation, Zameerul Hasan and Anwar Pasha are among the faces of the party in the state.

The AIMIM makes no secret of its political ambitions in Bengal.

“The party will contest all 294 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections,” said Zameerul Hasan.

Party insiders, however, said that focus will be on 82 seats and a dozen constituencies will come under special focus.

“The main way of spreading the organisation, however, is indoor meetings, held at the residences of the party’s supporters and sympathisers. These are usually held late in the evening. We are moving carefully and are trying to keep newcomers relatively underexposed to save them from the TMC’s politics of vendetta,” said Tofajjul Haq, AIMIM’s key organiser in Cooch Behar district.

Political analysts said Mamata Banerjee has reasons to worry. “She is solely banking on Muslim votes for returning to power in 2021. Split in Muslim votes is likely to spoil her chances. If AIMIM is in Kishanganj, Raiganj (in North Dinajpur) is not far,” said Biswanath Chakraborty, a professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University.

Mamata Banerjee, continued her jibes at Osawini on Wednesday. Addressing a gathering at a government event at Sagardighi in Murshidabad, she said, “Some people are coming from Hyderabad, bringing along money and telling people here that they will fight for them. Don’t listen to them. They are the agent of the BJP. It is we who are fighting and we will keep fighting.”

Clubbing both BJP and AIMIM together as ‘outsiders’, she said, “Don’t trust leaders from outside, whether they are Hindus or Muslims,” she said.

Following the exchange of barbs, AIMIM’s Bengal organisers have been asked to visit Jharkhand later this month when Owaisi is scheduled to spend five days for Assembly election campaign. Owaisi will visit Bengal in December and is scheduled to address a public meeting in Kolkata.