Furfura-Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui on Tuesday came down heavily on the Trinamul Congress and accused Mamata Banerjee’s party of declining an offer of alliance made from his end.
“We had proposed an alliance to the Trinamul leadership and asked for 44 Assembly seats. The offer was, however, rejected and after we made it clear that we would be in the poll fray, the state government has started harassing our supporters by implicating them in false police cases,” said Siddiqui.
He was speaking in an open religious gathering at Bamangram in Kaliachak of Malda district. The area comes under the Sujapur Assembly constituency, a seat where the Congress has been winning since the sixties.
Siddiqui, who has recently floated a new political platform — Indian Secular Front (ISF) — also accused Trinamul of “paving the way for the BJP in Bengal”.
“Trinamul brought in the BJP and now, as the BJP started chasing the people with an open sword, Trinamul tactfully opened its door to offer refuge to minorities and Dalits…. It was nothing but a political strategy as those who trusted Trinamul were deprived even of basic facilities for years,” the cleric added.
Siddiqui as well as Asaduddin Owaisi, who heads the Hyderabad-based AIMIM, are eyeing Malda, a district that has around 55 per cent minority population.
On Monday, the AIMIM had held its first public meeting in the district.
Speaking to newspersons, Siddiqui reiterated that the ISF would contest in alliance with the AIMIM.
“We do not fear the BJP. If they beat 10 of us, we would injure 20 of them. But time to befool us with the scare of the BJP has come to an end,” he said.
Siddiqui urged the audience to be inclusive and embrace people of all castes, creed and religion because “they are creations of the Almighty”.
The ISF has decided to field candidates in six of the 12 Assembly seats of Malda district.