Owaisi vs Mamata in Bengal: AIMIM chief Assaduddin Owaisi on Sunday fired back at Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, which accused him of being the B-Team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The accusation came proper right after Owaisi met an influential Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui in Bengal to go over the upcoming assembly polls in the eastern state, which has about 110-120 Muslim dominated constituencies, adequate to tip the balance in a close contest which is most likely with the rise of BJP in Bengal. The TMC is eyeing these one hundred-odd seats, but it would be hard for the ruling party to conveniently sail via if Owaisi does what he did in the not too long ago held assembly elections in neighbouring Bihar.
In Bihar, the AIMIM contested on 20 seats and won 5. The RJD-led Mahagathbandhan won 9 seats whilst the BJP secured six. It is believed that had it not been the AIMIM, the Mahagathbandhan would have won 15-17 seats in Muslim-dominated Seemanchal. This would have elevated Opposition’s tally to more than 115 and brought down NDA’s quantity beneath 120. With help of other people, the Mahagathbandhan would have installed its government in Bihar.
The TMC fears the exact same fate with the entry of Owaisi in Bengal. TMC and Congress have named Owaisi the “B-Team of BJP” and a vote-splitter party. However, Owaisi on Sunday hit back at the TMC, asking it to introspect why the BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats in the final common election held in 2019. Owaisi also asked Mamata Banerjee to feel why a lot of of its regional leaders had been leaving the TMC. He mentioned: “We are a political party, we will establish our presence and fight the elections in Bengal… The TMC should introspect and find out what worked in BJP’s favour during Lok Sabha elections. The party should analyse why its members are leaving.”
In 2019, the BJP had got close to 41 per cent votes and 18 seats whilst the TMC got 22 with more than 43 per cent votes. However, TMC’s tally had come down by 12 seats. It was a huge increase for the saffron party which has now gone complete throttle to wrest energy from TMC. Last month, the BJP delivered a huge jolt to TMC by inducting its second greatest mass leader Suvendu Adhikary. Owaisi was referring to Adhikary when he educated guns at Banerjee.