KOLKATA: WBPCC president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Thursday termed AIMIM as the 'B team' of BJP and said it will be rejected outright by the secular-minded people of the state.
He said that Muslims of West Bengal have well understood the agenda of Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM after the poll result in Bihar, where it helped BJP to defeat the Mahagathbandhan by eating into minority votes.
The politically conscious secular-minded people and Muslims of Bengal will never vote for a party like AIMIM and will ensure they lose their deposits, he said.
The AIMIM has been exposed after the Bihar poll results.
The Muslims of this country very well know that it is the B team of BJP, whose sole aim is to divide the Muslim vote and cause damage to the secular parties.
"In Bihar the AIMIM did it. Now they want to replicate it in Bengal, Chowdhury told reporters.
"When asked whether the AIMIM, which has announced to contest in the 2021 Bengal assembly polls will be able to make a difference, he replied in the negative. The AIMIM does not have any prospect in West Bengal. In Bihar it bagged five seats. But in Bengal the party will lose in every seat it contests," he said.
"Its candidates will lose their deposits as the politically conscious secular-minded people and the Muslims of the state will never vote for a party like the AIMIM, he said.
The political parties in West Bengal are apprehensive that the political equation in the polarised state is set to witness significant changes as the sway of non-BJP parties over minorities, a key factor in several seats, appears to be set for a stiff challenge with Owaisi's party announcing that it will contest the Bengal assembly poll.
About TMC mocking BJP as a "party of outsiders", Chowdhury, who is also the leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, said the saffron being a pan-India party could well bring its leaders from other states for its organisational work.
"What is wrong in it? Any pan-India party can bring in its leaders from other states.
There is nothing wrong in it, he said.
On the social media blitzkrieg by BJP before the state poll, Chowdhury said Congress lacked financial resources to match up to it.
The BJP has formidable social media machinery.
And I have no qualms in accepting that we dont have the financial resources to match up to its social media strength, he said.