Bengali Muslims have realised how Mamata deprived them of development … paved way for BJP, stigmatised minorities: CPM leader Md Salim

For CPI(M) supporters in West Bengal, all eyes are on the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat where the party’s state secretary Md Salim is up against sitting Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abu Taher Khan, with the support of the Congress. Salim is a former MP who won from Raiganj in 2014 but lost the seat five years later.

Murshidabad used to be a bastion of the CPI(M), and even of the Congress before that. As campaigning winds down, Salim speaks to The Indian Express about the challenge from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP, why the alliance with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) did not materialise, and the Left’s poll agenda,

Excerpts:

The elections are yet to be held and you are talking about the past. Focus on the present and tell me what the current scenario is in the state. Forget candidates, just talk about voters.

After realising that both the Central and state governments have failed to address their aspirations, the youth are rallying behind the Left. This will have an impact on the outcome. If you have to, check the data of the 2023 panchayat elections, even with all the rigging. Don’t quote the results of the 2021 Assembly polls, when the bogey of NRC and CAA compelled voters to choose a side just as during the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, there was Balakot.

While the BJP kept talking about the UCC (Uniform Civil Code) and Ram Mandir etc throughout last year, we were talking about bread-and-butter issues and inflation. TMC is not addressing Bengal’s real problems. They are trying to make money through illegal arms and smuggling. That is why they are now isolated. Past data doesn’t capture this reality.

In the last two elections, a false binary was created about the fight in the state being between the TMC and the BJP.