After AIMIM's Success In Bihar , Does Mamata Banerjee Need To Fear Owaisi? Know If The Party Can Dent Vote Share

West Bengal is expected to go to polls in April-May 2021 and is facing tough competition from the (BJP). Now Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM has also announced their plans to contest the elections. Know if it will have an impact on TMC's chances.

Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Despite what most exit polls predicted, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) managed to win the nailbiter Bihar Assembly elections 2020 with 125 seats in a  243-member Assembly. But there were more surprising performances by smaller parties especially Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM ). The Telangana based party managed to win five seats in the Seemanchal region. The Congress has accused the party of being a vote cutter and BJP's 'B- team'. On Tuesday AIMIM announced their plans to contest the polls in West Bengal, raising questions about its impact on the All India Trinamool Congress(TMC). West Bengal has the largest Muslim electorate after Kashmir and around 30 percent of voters in the state are Muslims. The national spokesperson of the party Asim Waqar on Wednesday said that the party has set up units in 22 out of the 23 districts of the state. "We will fight assembly polls in Bengal. We are preparing our strategy. We have registered our presence in 22 out of the 23 districts of the state. We think, as a political party, we can make deep inroads into the state," said Waqar in a PTI report. Usually, the Mamata Banerjee led All India Trinamool Congress(TMC) enjoys the minority votes and has been a major force even in 2019. She has also been criticised for her Muslim appeasement and according to media reports, the BJP is counting on the polarisation of Hindu vote share in the coming elections. AIMIM has built a good base in minority-dominated districts of Malda, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, South 24 Parganas. These districts comprise more than sixty assembly seats. In 2019, the party also witnessed a good attendance in their rally. Mohammed Kamruzzaman, the general secretary of All Bengal Minority Youth Federation, also said that voters have also started questioning the TMC after several leaders joined the BJP. "The Muslims, for the last ten years, have voted for the TMC, and they have hopes and aspirations from the party," said Kamruzzaman. Banerjee has also not been very pleased with AIMIM's interest in Bengal and last year during an anti--CAA rally had without taking names warned the public of  'minority extremists' from Hyderabad. A war of words had ensued after the incident. At a time when BJP seems to have made a significant mark in West Bengal with vote share zooming from 10.16% in 2016 state assembly elections to 40.25% of the votes in 2019, AIMIM might pose another challenge to Banerjee.