KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress party had decimated all opposition in the recent elections in the state of West Bengal, but the upcoming bypoll for the Ballygunge Assembly seat on April 12 is turning out to be a tough contest for the party.
The reason is the saffron baggage of its candidate Babul Supriyo, who switched over from the BJP a few months ago.
Muslims, who constitute over 30 per cent of the electorate in Ballygunge, are upset over Supriyo’s candidature as the singer-turned-politician had echoed the Hindutva rhetoric aggressively when he was in the BJP.
The minority community appears to be tilting towards the CPI(M), which has fielded Saira Shah Halim, daughter-in-law of former Assembly Speaker Late Hasim Abdul Halim, and niece of actor Naseeruddin Shah. Her husband Fuad Halim is a popular doctor known for his welfare works.
The candidature of Saira, touted as one of CPM’s GenNext leaders, has brightened the chances of the party which had failed to bag a single seat in the 294-member House in the Assembly elections.
This is causing worries in the TMC. A senior party leader conceded that Supriyo’s long association with the BJP in the past has queered the pitch for the TMC this time.
Several Muslim clerics had expressed unhappiness when his name was announced as TMC nominee. Sensing the unease among the party’s minority vote-bank, Mamata’s nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is trying to do the firefighting.
“The real candidate is the chief minister. … Many people are saying voting for Supriyo is akin to voting for the BJP. I want to tell them that Babul has abandoned BJP’s ideology and embraced the TMC ideology. He has left the politics of Jai sri Ram and followed the politics of Jai Bangla and Jai Hind,” Banerjee said at a rally on Friday.
The TMC’s palpable nervousness has made Halim upbeat
“We are expecting a ghar wapsi of Muslim voters,” she said.
BJP candidate Keya Ghosh also took a dig at TMC over Abhishek’s comment that the real candidate is Mamata Banerjee.
“Mamata said it in the Assembly elections and now her nephew is saying the same. Doesn’t Supriyo have any personal charisma?” she questioned.