Bengal: Indian Secular Front's Many Victories in Panchayat Polls Raise Concerns For Trinamool Congress

The Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal, has solidified its dominance in the state's politics by winning across all three tiers of the panchayat elections.

However, the party has concerns about the growing influence of the Indian Secular Front (ISF), which emerged in the 2021 Assembly elections.

Despite facing violence and clashes in its stronghold of Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district, the ISF managed to secure gram panchayat seats in Bhangar and neighboring districts like North 24 Parganas and Howrah.

Although the State Election Commission has yet to release the final figures, sources within the ISF claim that they fielded candidates in over 1,300 seats in their first panchayat elections in West Bengal. They are confident of winning more than 400 of these seats.

The rise of the ISF and the concerns it raises for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are evident in the violent clashes between party workers in Bhangar, which began soon after the nomination process started.

Tragically, the death toll in the Bhangar violence had reached six by Thursday (13 July).

The TMC has always considered Muslims as a strong support base in West Bengal. Bhangar, a predominantly Muslim area located 20 km from the Kolkata suburbs of New Town and Rajarhat, has consistently been a top priority for the party.

The ISF was established by the cleric of the Furfura Sharif shrine, Peerzada Abbas Siddiqui, in preparation for the 2021 Assembly elections.

The party claims that it's main objective is to provide social justice to the Muslims and Dalits of Bengal. However, it has received support only from Muslims.

In addition to the influence of the ISF, which is led by Siddiqui and has his younger brother Naushad as the party's only MLA, the results in Bhangar once again revealed the divisions within the TMC in the area.

The TMC initially gained a foothold in Bhangar when its leader Arabul Islam won the seat in the 2006 Assembly elections. However, in 2011, during an election that saw the TMC sweep to power for the first time, Bhangar was one of the constituencies it lost.

In 2016, the TMC managed to reclaim the seat by fielding Abdur Razzak Mollah, who had previously served as the land reforms minister under the Left Front government.

In 2021, the TMC replaced Mollah with Dr Rezaul Karim, a former CPI(M) leader who had contested the Lok Sabha election from Birbhum in 2019. This decision sparked protests from Mollah's supporters. However, Mollah achieved his revenge when Karim lost the seat to the ISF's Naushad Siddiqui.

The TMC government has been facing a protest against land acquisition in the area since 2013. The movement began after the state government acquired 13 acres of land for a power grid project.

In 2016, villagers blocked roads and clashed with the police, resulting in the deaths of two protesters.

Despite the police denying opening fire and blaming "outsiders," and the government reaching an agreement with the villagers in August 2018 to proceed with the project, residual anger remains.

The ISF capitalised on this situation by involving the Jomi Jibika Bastutantro O Poribesh Raksha Committe — a panel formed to protest against the land acquisition. This panel, along with the Left, became one of the ISF's allies in the panchayat polls.

According to a report in The Indian Express, senior TMC leader acknowledged the shift in support:

"Those who fought against land acquisition are now with the ISF (in Bhangar). Almost all the CPI(M) members are also now with the ISF… One after another, there have been corruption charges against us, and in many areas, the Muslim vote has moved entirely to the ISF. In many villages of Bhangar, we don’t even have a footing now."

Last year in January, there was a clash between workers of the TMC and ISF in the streets of Kolkata. The ISF was protesting against alleged attacks on its workers by TMC men led by Arabul Islam.

The clash resulted in injuries to eight policemen, and Naushad Siddiqui and 17 of his supporters were arrested. Naushad was only granted bail after 42 days.

In an attempt to control the damage, the TMC sent Saokat Mollah, a party MLA and close associate of general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. However, the party's efforts were only partially successful.

During the recent panchayat elections, the ISF, CPI(M), and Jomi Jibika Bastutantro O Poribesh Raksha Committee claimed that they were prevented from filing nominations.

In Bhangar-I block, the ISF was unable to file nominations for any seat. In contrast, in Bhangar-II, it fielded candidates for 132 gram panchayat seats out of 218, and the three allies together won 68 seats, surpassing the TMC's 63.

Naushad argued that if it weren't for the "TMC terror," the ISF would have secured a majority of the gram panchayat seats in both Bhangar I and II Blocks.

According to Arabul Islam, the rise of the ISF in the area directly challenges his authority. He believes that the ISF is a force of anarchy that has caused terror in Bhangar and other areas in South and North 24 Parganas.

Arabul Islam claims that the people have rejected such forces in the elections.

Tapash Chakraborty, the leader of the ISF, has a different perspective on the election results. He is very optimistic and sees the results as a positive outcome for his party.

“We won gram panchayat seats even in Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly. People of West Bengal are searching for a new political force besides the BJP and TMC. A huge number of young people are associated with our party. We will spread our organisation across the state in the near future,” claimed Chakraborty.