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With speculation over Trinamool Congress' possible post-poll understandingwith the BJP doing the rounds, a section of the minority community has asked Mamata Banerjee's party to clear the air on the issue before seeking its support.
Noted minority community leader from the state, Furfura Sharif Huzur Toha Siddiqui, has aked TMC to give an assurance that it would not ally with the BJP.
"We are not able to understand whether TMC is going with the BJP. If it does, the Muslim community is not with the party," he said. In fact, recently TMC leaders Mukul Roy, Firhad Hakim and Idris Ali,visited Furfura Sharif -- the most important pilgrimage forMuslims in West Bengal -- to meet Siddiqui and seek his blessings ahead of the elections.
The religious leader had then asked the TMC leaders to clear air on the issue. He also alleged that the TMC deprived minorities during nomination of Lok Sabha candidates. "Of the seven Muslims candidates, I have my doubts whether even five of them stand a chance of winning," he had told the media in the presence of TMC leaders.
Meanwhile, the opposition seems to be grabbing this opportunity ahead of theelections. State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wasted notime to visit Furfura Sharif and seek Siddiqui's blessing soon after TMC leaders' visit. Also, Left is raising the pitch over a possible TMC-BJP post-poll alliance.
Incidentally, CPI (M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently declared that the CPI (M) would support the Congress "if a situation like 2004 arises when we had to side with the Congress to stop the communal BJP". This has also fuelled the speculation that in such a scenario, TMC would align with the BJP.
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi too has tried to extend olive branches to Mamata during his campaign rally in West Bengal, although Mamata Banerjee's has decided to go on the offensive to distance itself from the saffron party. So far as the minority support is concerned, the balance of political calculations still seems to be favouring Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
Sanction of 10,000 madrasas in West Bengal, establishment of Aligarh Muslim University in WB, three Haj Towers in a row,declaration of second language status to Urdu in areas where theUrdu-speaking population is more than 10%, huge loan and subsidy to the Muslim youths - there has been a lot in the offering by the state government for minorities. Banerjee often makes it apoint saying, She, in fact, went overboard as in the case ofdeclaring Rs 2,500 per month as Imam honorarium, which, however, was later stopped by a Calcutta High Court order.
