The All India Secular Front (AISF), which was formed just before the 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal, has now become the toughest challenger to the ruling Trinamool Congress in the minority-dominated hamlet of Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district.
Founded by religious leader Abbas Siddique a.k.a. ‘Bhaijaan’, AISF contested the 2021 Assembly polls as an alliance partner of Left Front and Congress. In the elections, Abbas Siddique’s brother Naushad Siddique emerged as the lone AISF representative in state Assembly after winning from Bhangar.
Since then, Naushad Siddique has not only kept AISF’s voice loud inside the House, but at times he also personally led protest demonstrations against the alleged attacks on the AISF workers by the ruling party members in Bhangar.
In February this year, the otherwise soft-spoken Naushad Siddque led a protest march in Kolkata against alleged attacks on his party workers by Trinamool members, during which parts of the city turned into virtual battlefields AISF supporters clashed with the cops.
Siddique was arrested and had to spend several days behind the bars. However, his days in jail could not tone him down as after coming out, he became more vocal against the ruling party and state government.
His leadership quality was felt again over the last two days when Bhangar turned into a battlefield following violent clashes between AISF and Trinamool supporters over nomination filing for the July 8 panchayat elections, with the ruling outfit often pushed to the backfoot by the party with just one MLA.
In the midst of the chaos, Naushad Siddique displayed the qualities of both a party leader as well as a responsible elected public representative.
Amid the clashes, Siddique suddenly turned up at the state secretariat seeking an appointment with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to discuss the situation in Bhangar.
After being denied appointment, Siddique went back claiming that he came to meet the Chief Minister, who is the guardian of the state, to find a solution to the Bhangar crisis.
“But probably because of her pre-occupations, she could not give me time,” Siddique said.
Political observers find this act as a masterstroke on the part of Siddique, who gave a subtle message that despite being a greenhorn in state politics, AISF took the first step to find a solution to the Bhangar crisis, while the administrative head of the state did not even respond to it.
Probably realising that the AISF is making a dent in the minority vote-bank of the Trinamool, Mamata Banerjee on Friday launched a scathing attack against Siddique and AISF, without naming either of them, at a public rally in Namkhana in South 24 Parganas district.
“Funded by the BJP, a breakaway minority group has created tension at Bhangar over nomination filing during the last couple of days. I am surprised by their audacity with just one legislator. They are trying to malign the image of West Bengal. It is because of Trinamool Congress that people from the minority community are safe in Bengal,” Banerjee said.
According to political analyst Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay, although it is yet to be proved as to how long Siddique will be able to continue with his party’s stubborn resistance against the Trinamool and how the Congress-Left-AISF trio will benefit from it, Siddique has emerged as the “man of the match” during the nomination filing period.
20230616-220602
