Trinamool successfully wrests majority of Muslim votes
Kolkata: The consolidation of Muslim votes has had a direct impact on Trinamool Congress' clean sweep in the Assembly elections the results of which was declared on Sunday. Of the 63 Muslim dominated Assembly constituencies (ACs), TMC had a convincing win in 58 while BJP managed to win only two of them and a solitary one went to the Sanjukta Morcha.
Among these 63 ACs, election in two constituencies- Samsherganj and Jangipur in Murshidabad is still due.
Contesting candidate of Sanjukta Morcha in both these seats have died of Covid forcing the poll panel to push back the dates.
Interestingly, among these 58 seats, TMC managed to win with a margin of over 40,000 votes in 30 seats, which is more than 50 percent of the winning seats. S K Jiyauddin at Sujapur in Malda district, Monirul Islam in Farakka, Idris Ali in Bhagabangola — both in Murshidabad won by a margin of over 50,000 votes.
BJP managed to get only one seat in North Dinajpur and another in Murshidabad district and the Indian Secular Front — an alliance partner of Sanjukta Morcha managed the single seat in Bhangar in South 24-Parganas district.
The bulk of the Muslim-dominated seats in Bengal are mostly present in four districts — Murshidabad, Malda, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas. Murshidabad has 16 Muslim-dominated seats among a total of 22 Assembly seats, the rest of the three districts have nine Assembly seats each.
There was always a palpable apprehension that the Hindu votes might be polarised in favour of BJP and hence, the TMC tried desperately to consolidate Muslim votes in its favour. During her election campaigns, particularly in the minority-dominated districts, TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee had appealed to the electorate not to allow the person who is visiting Bengal from Hyderabad as he received money from BJP for contesting in the Assembly polls. She was hinting at the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi who had fielded candidates in seven seats. She also came down heavily on Abbas Siddique, the cleric of Furfura Sharif, who formed the Indian Secular Front (ISF) and joined hands with the Congress and the Left Front to contest the elections. The results have proved clearly that the Muslim vote share didn't go to the ISF and its allies.
The Muslim vote bank has been a bigger and deciding factor in Bengal polls who were wooed and considered a vote bank by the Left Front. TMC ushered in 'Paribartan' in Bengal in 2011 ending the 34 years hegemony of the Left.
