On the 6th of April, the All India Majilis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) released the list of seven candidates contesting the West Bengal elections.
The AIMIM’s candidate would contest from Itahar, Jalangi, Sagardighi, Bharatpur, Malatipur, Ratua and Asansol Uttar seats.
Candidates of the AIMIM contesting in the aforementioned constituencies:
- Ethereal seat– Mofakkar Islam
- Jalangi Seat– Alsokat Jaman
- Sagardighi Seat– Noor Mehboob Alam
- Bharatpur Seat– Sajjad Hosain
- Maltipur Seat– Maulana Motiur Rahman
- Rust seat– Saidur Rahman
- Asansol North Seat– Danish Aziz
Speaking about the strategy of the AIMIM, a senior AIMIM leader, who wished to be anonymous said, “The party is contesting seats mostly in Murshidabad and Malda district, in constituencies where the Muslim vote share is about 80% or higher in general.”
Political consultant Sumit Anand said that in West Bengal, where Muslims account for nearly 30% of the state’s population, it is believed that the community can play a decisive role in about 100 seats. He said, “I think it’s strategically very smart. These are rural constituencies except for Asansol Uttar, and have been closely contested between AITC, CPIM & Congress in recent years.”
With this, the Hyderabad Party AIMIM jumped in to the state politics of West Bengal. Recently in 2020, the Party won five seats in the Bihar Assembly polls.
The West Bengal Assembly elections 2021 gained political coverage due to the tough fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC.) The situation became tricky, after the AIMIM came in and decided to contest from a few Assembly seats, dividing Muslim vote banks between the TMC and the AIMIM.
The State is conducting the third phase of the Assembly elections for 30 seats. The remaining phases of the 8 phased Assembly elections are scheduled on the 10th, the 17th, the 22nd, the 26th and the 29th of April.
The results of the Assembly elections would be announced on the 2nd of May.
Stay tuned for further updates.
