Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit Furfura Sharif in Hooghly’s Jangipara — deemed holy by Bengali Muslims — on Monday.
This comes a week after her 20-minute discussion on “development” at Nabanna with ISF chairperson Nawsad Siddique, which had triggered speculation in the state’s corridors of power.
Nawsad is one of the widely revered Pirzadas — a great-grandson of Pir Saheb Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique whose mazar is at Furfura Sharif. Nawsad is also currently the lone non-Trinamul Congress, non-BJP MLA in the Bengal Assembly, having won from Bhangar in 2021 with the backing of the Left and the Congress.
Sources in the ruling dispensation said the chief minister might have a one-on-one with Pirzada Taha Siddique — an uncle Nawsad is purportedly not close to — who is a cleric of the shrine.
“She is expected to deliver a message from there, perhaps through a media interaction. She will participate in an iftar at the musafirkhana in the Furfura Darbar Sharif complex…. This will be her third visit (there) as chief minister, after 2012 and 2016,” said a source.
“Discussion of development initiatives at the Furfura Sharif, government funds earmarked for them, and ironing out issues, if any, are the main reasons for the visit. The shrine is always important, and elections are barely a year away,” the source added. “Some concerns have been conveyed to us on the development and utilisation of funds, delays in the completion of the university being set up there… those will be addressed.”
Muslims and other minorities form about a third of the Bengal electorate. They have largely been siding with Mamata election after election since the Lok Sabha polls of 2009. With the rise of the BJP as the principal Opposition in the state, minority support goes a long way in helping her ward off the saffron threat, as minorities determine the electoral outcome in at least 120 of the state’s 294 Assembly seats.
After Nawsad’s meeting with Mamata last week, he had to spend days defending himself against allegations from various quarters of an impending defection to a sellout. He said he met Mamata to discuss administrative issues and his inability to utilise the local area development funds he is entitled to as the Bhangar legislator. He had thanked the chief minister for her promise of assistance.
“Once seen as an Asaduddin Owaisi-like vote-cutter to help the BJP here by taking away some Muslim votes from Mamata, Nawsad has shown in recent years that he can be a lot more than that. He is a very bright young man with a lot of promise and significant following, and actually has unflinching faith in the key noble values, Bengal’s pluralist, inclusive ethos being one of them,” said a senior in the Assembly’s Treasury benches.
“She (Mamata) is rather fond of him now,” he added.