Why the Left and Congress should be wary of Indian Secular Front in Bengal

ISF

The minorities in West Bengal—comprising nearly 30 per cent of the population, plays a pivotal role in shaping the contours of politics in the state. West Bengal boasts the second-highest number of Muslim electorate in the country after Kashmir and Assam.

West Bengal is poised for a fascinating three-cornered contest with the Trinamol Congress going solo, the Congress and the Left fighting under the collective INDIA banner and the BJP hoping to consolidate on its 2019 performance.

However, the Indian Secular Front’s  (a political outfit floated two years back by Islamic clerics) decision to back out from the Congress Left alliance, efforts to woo minorities might become more challenging for the Left Congress, especially with the saffron party capitalising on various polarising issues such as the Ram Mandir and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

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West Bengal boasts the second-highest number of Muslim electorate in the country after Kashmir and Assam. Even though there may be some discontent within the community regarding the state government, religious minority leaders believe that voting for the TMC is crucial to counter the BJP.

Trouble began when the ISF announced the names of its candidates for eight seats across West Bengal, including Malda-North, Joynagar, Murshidabad, Barasat, Basirhat, Mathurapur, Jhargram and Serampore, which went against the decided breakup for the alliance partners.

Out of the 42 seats in the state, the Left Front had agreed to leave six for the ISF, apart from 12 for the Congress — leaving 24 seats to carve up between the Front’s own constituent parties. Thereafter, it announced candidates for 17 seats, while the Congress named its candidates on eight, with four more left to be announced.

The attempts to forge an electoral understanding between the Left Front and Indian Secular Front (ISF) and the Congress in West Bengal finally fell flat with the ISF announcing candidates for 14 seats. ISF MLA Naushad Siddique, who had made tall claims about contesting from the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat against Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee, backed out from the contest. The ISF has fielded Majnu Laskar from the seat.

Buoyed by its success, the party has set an ambitious target of winning 35 seats in this election. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP put up an impressive performance in West Bengal, clinching 18 seats and securing 40 per cent of the vote share.

According to political commentators, minorities in West Bengal, are likely to vote for the TMC to halt BJP's advance, despite the presence of a secular alternative in the form of Left-Congress alliance, community leaders said. Analysts are of the view that according to minority leaders, Muslims in West Bengal, pivotal in several Lok Sabha seats, are inclined towards the Mamata Banerjee-led party, which they see as a credible force, unlike the Left-Congress alliance.

Analysts also believe that The Indian Secular Front, in their nascent stage, are not potent enough to cause any big upset to Mamata Banerjee in terms of winning over her core vote bank. However, the ISF may dent the combined chances of the Left-Congress in certain pockets by splitting the minority votes.

Indian Secular Front (ISF) MLA Nawsad Siddiqui has blamed Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for the breakdown in negotiations for an alliance between the Left-Congress and the ISF in West Bengal for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. After efforts by the CPI(M) and ISF to iron out a seat sharing deal failed to yield a positive outcome, the ISF Thursday released its second list of candidates.

The ISF, despite garnering just 1.35 per cent of the popular vote in the 2021 West Bengal assembly election and getting one legislative seat, was and is still seen as a threat to the mainstream TMC, Congress, CPI(M) and the BJP for a share of the state’s 27 per cent Muslim vote, because of the popularity of the Furfura Sharif shrine among poor Bengali Muslim farmers who believe in a folksy Sufi version of Islam.