Trinamool Congress (TMC) parliamentarian and fashionable movie star Nusrat Jahan was the centre of consideration in her Lok Sabha constituency, Basirhat, on Wednesday. Jahan, adorned with a shiny yellow dupatta, held an open-jeep highway present within the dusty lanes of Ward Number 15 right here, waving at individuals and drumming up help for her occasion within the ongoing state polls. Basirhat’s seven meeting seats vote on Saturday.
Asked if her occasion had its again to the wall, as claimed by the challenger Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — it says it would win at the least 200 of the state’s 294 seats — Jahan was fast to reply that West Bengal would think about chief minister Mamata Banerjee come what might.
“I firmly believe that the people of Bengal are driven by emotions. And Didi (as Banerjee is popularly called) has always been emotionally attached to the people…whatever the situation is today, or whatever happens in the near future, people would always want only one face: our leader Mamata Banerjee,” Jahan, 31, instructed News18 in an interview.
She wished all “other parties and candidates” within the fray, however identified that voters had been showering the TMC with their love. “…their enthusiasm has always been for the party that has worked for them for 10 years (the TMC came to power in 2011)…it is Didi alone who has worked for them, not any other party,” Jahan mentioned.
She additionally questioned the Election Commission (EC) and BJP leaders on the Sitalkuchi deaths in Cooch Behar, the place 4 individuals died in firing by safety personnel through the fourth part of polling on April 10. Officials mentioned the forces had to fireplace at a mob in self-defence.
“I heard opposition leaders say what happened in Sitalkuchi will happen again. It is extremely disrespectful, and scary for the people of Bengal to have such leaders around. A people’s representative should not be talking on these lines,” she mentioned, apparently referring to BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.
After the Sitalkuchi incident, Ghosh’s remarks that “naughty boys fell to bullets” and that there will probably be a repeat if somebody overstepped boundaries triggered an issue. On Thursday, the ballot watchdog barred him from campaigning for twenty-four hours.
EC, in accordance to Jahan, had not been honest this time round. “It is very shameful that if their (BJP) leaders talk in a disrespectful manner, they are not taken into account. But if my leader spoke on behalf of the people, when something wrong and unfair had happened…, she was not heard and penalised for nothing. Where are we heading?” Jahan instructed News18, hours earlier than the EC motion towards Ghosh.
Earlier this week, CM Banerjee, too, was banned from campaigning for twenty-four hours over her election speeches that the watchdog mentioned violated the ballot code.
Jahan additionally responded to the BJP’s cost that CM Banerjee’s core ladies voter base was deserting her. “I am a woman and I want to assert that Didi has all the support from the women of Bengal. Every gender of Bengal is with Didi.”
She, nevertheless, dodged one other BJP allegation — that of “Muslim appeasement”. “Right now, we would only focus on doing better (work) for the people, and not talk about religion or appeasement. It is about what people want…people in Bengal want their own daughter, Mamata Banerjee,” she mentioned, echoing a celebration marketing campaign. Jahan added that the 2021 struggle was “to save the state” and, therefore, it was vital for the individuals to vote for Banerjee.
ISSUES IN BASIRHAT
All seven meeting seats within the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency have a sizeable minority inhabitants. The share of Muslims in seats equivalent to Haroa and Baduria is as excessive as 70% and 65%, respectively. In Basirhat Uttar, it’s virtually 50%.
Infiltration, cow smuggling and cow slaughter are a number of the main points in Basirhat, which is in North 24-Parganas district and proper subsequent to the Bangladesh border. The BJP has been making makes an attempt to discover a foothold on this space by elevating such points. News18 noticed cattle being tied up and herded on small automobiles — which the BJP says goes unchecked and is aided by the state administration.
The TMC gained six of the seven meeting seats right here within the 2016 elections. Three years later, Jahan gained the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat by an enormous margin of three.5 lakh votes, at the same time as her occasion led in all of the meeting segments.
A senior BJP chief in Bengal, nevertheless, mentioned the occasion noticed an opportunity in at the least three of those meeting seats owing to “Hindu consolidation” and a potential break up in Muslim votes in view of the presence of the Left-Congress-Indian Secular Front (ISF) alliance, which seems to have affordable power right here.
During her Basirhat marketing campaign, Jahan put extra stress on Banerjee because the CM candidate than the native candidate because the MLA. “Basirhat has seen a lot of development. But this time, the issue is not just of Basirhat. It is bigger and about Bengal…Mamata Banerjee is the candidate for the state,” Jahan mentioned.
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