The newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) of influential Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui in West Bengal has sent a list of 70-80 assembly seats where it wants to contest the Left Front-Congress leadership.

On Monday, Abbas Siddiqui’s brother Naushad Siddiqui, chairman of the Indian Secular Front, who is very optimistic about their alliance with the Congress-Left coalition, met CPI(M) leaders Mohammed Salim and Left Front chairperson Biman Bose to discuss the constituencies from where the ISF wants to field candidates.

Speaking to News18.com, ISF founder Abbas Siddiqui said, “It is true that our party chairman Naushad Siddiqui met the Left and Congress leaders and expressed the party’s stand to contest on 80 seats covering all the districts. We have finalized these seats after examining the ground reality about our prospects.”

When asked why he did not attend today’s meeting over seat adjustment with the Left Front and the Congress, he said, “We have already met their leaderships last night with our demands and number of assembly seats where we are eager to field our candidates. Therefore, there is no point in meeting them again. We asked them to go through our list and inform us about their plans.”

In the context of their relationship with Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Siddiqui said, “I have already asked Owaisi sahab to submit their plans and seats they want to contest in Bengal. But so far we have not received any response from them.”

When asked how they are expecting AIMIM to be an ally of ISF when the Left and Congress have categorically said that they want to have an alliance with ISF without Owaisi, Abbas Siddiqui said, “I know they have set a condition but if our mindset is the same and our target is the same, then I think we all (including Left and Congress) should give some thought to this. Setting conditions is fine but it should have some logic to define why we should not have an alliance with anyone else (on Owaisi). I think it is too early to comment on this issue as we are now looking at the Congress and the Left for their response on seats where we want to contest the upcoming polls.”

Left Front chairman Biman Bose maintained that they will fight the assembly polls in alliance with Congress and ISF.

On the issue of seat-sharing adjustment, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “Apart from ISF, there are other smaller parties like RJD and NCP who want to have an alliance with us. This time it will be a three-cornered fight and not a two-cornered one. Since a lot of smaller parties want to join us, therefore we are taking time to finalise a number of seats where we all will contest together.”

Owaisi has seen a huge political opportunity in Bengal and since 2011 his party slowly started working in the bordering areas of the state where the Muslim population is high.

After winning the Kishanganj seat in Bihar for the first time, Owaisi focused more attention on Bengal and started communication with Abbas Siddiqui. He also met him personally in West Bengal. Though he yet to launch AIMIM officially in the state, Owaisi has already engaged local youths to spread AIMIM’s ideology and the party’s stand towards Muslims mainly in Kolkata, North Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Jalpaiguri and Nadia districts.

On the other side, talks between Siddiqui and the leaders of Congress and Left Front have been going on since December 2020. In all the meetings, Siddiqui has been told that the Congress and Left Front are only interested in an alliance with him if he dissociates himself from Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM.

The reason: both the Congress and Left Front leaders feel that AIMIM is not a secular party.

It seems even Siddiqui is more inclined towards having an alliance with the Congress and Left Front and it was evident when he announced his new political party ISF on January 21 (as suggested by leaders like Md Salim, Adhir Chowdhury, Abdul Mannan and late Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s brother Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury).

While announcing his new political party, Abbas Siddiqui had said, “I am not going to contest the polls but I will play the role of a kingmaker.”

Abbas Siddiqui is an influential cleric of Furfura Sharif Darbar located in Jangipara in Hooghly district and his decision to contest the state elections this year could be a worry for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee due to the inevitable division of Muslim vote share.

Though Siddiqui is against the BJP, his decision to contest the assembly polls is likely to help the saffron brigade as the TMC is going to suffer the most due to the split in Muslim votes.

With a more than 30 percent vote share, Muslims are undeniably a crucial factor in West Bengal’s electoral politics.

They were the deciding factor during the Left rule till TMC chief Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011.

Mamata knows well that any significant division in the Muslim vote share, a significant number in nearly 90 assembly segments out of the 294 in the state, could jeopardize her mission 2021.