“Muslims in West Bengal will not vote for us,” Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said while speaking to mediapersons on Wednesday. The BJP leader went on to accuse West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of ‘poisoning the Muslims’ in the State against the BJP on the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC). The Nandigram MLA’s comment was in the context of defection of the Congress MLA from Sagardighi Bayron Biswas to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on May 29 and how it was impossible for a BJP candidate to win the constituency with 70 % Muslim electorate.
This was not the first time Mr. Adhikari has raised the issue of the NRC. Over the past few months, the BJP leaders had reached out to Muslims in the State pointing out that they had been fooled during the 2021 Assembly poll by being threatened on the issue of NRC. Unlike the other BJP leaders in the State, Mr. Adhikari has taken a different approach while reaching out to Muslims and has pointed out that a large number of Muslims in West Bengal were migrating out for jobs. Mr. Adhikari has been emphasising that the BJP was not against “nationalist Muslims” and trying to get some support from the community which officially comprises 27.01 % electorate in the State.
Mr. Adhikari’s remarks were in response to the Sagardighi defection and the TMC leadership raking up the issue of the NRC. Ms. Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee have been ‘warning’ Muslims that the BJP government at the Centre was making fresh attempts at implementing the NRC.
