As a TMC strongman is arrested, why Mamata Banerjee’s party won’t be complaining

A Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman, Arabul Islam was the Mamata Banerjee-led party’s face in Bhangar in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district for well over a decade. But, in a move that has surprised some, the Kolkata Police arrested the former MLA on Thursday in the murder case of an Indian Secular Front (ISF) worker registered eight months ago. While the ruling party claims that the arrest illustrates the impartiality of the police, belying the Opposition’s claims, the CPI(M) and the BJP have alleged it is a show the TMC is putting up before the Lok Sabha elections.

Arabul is accused in the murder case of ISF worker Mohammad Mohiuddin Molla, who was shot dead last June during the panchayat elections when he turned up at the block development office to file his nomination papers. The election confirmed that Arabul, who won Bhangar in 2006 for the TMC when the CPI(M)-led Left was almost a hegemonic force in Bengal politics, had been losing his touch.

In the panchayat elections, violence in Bhangar, which is a predominantly Muslim area, and the local anger against Arabul forced the TMC to bring in MLA Saokat Molla to oversee the local organisation. Molla, the Canning Purba MLA, is another heavyweight leader from the minority community in South 24 Parganas.

But that was not enough as the ISF, in alliance with the CPI(M) and a local anti-land acquisition committee, gave the TMC a run for its money. Of the 218 seats in 10 gram panchayats of Bhangar-II block, the TMC won from 86 without a contest. Of the 132 seats that went to polls, the TMC won 63, the ISF 43, the Jomi Jibika Bastutantra Poribesh Rokkha Committee 18, the CPI(M) seven, and one seat was bagged by an Independent. This came two years after the party lost the