Mamata Banerjee on Monday visited Furfura Sharif in Hooghly’s Jangipara, and participated in meetings and an iftar gathering while demanding answers on why questions weren’t raised when she visited places of worship of any other religion.

The chief minister, who had last visited the shrine — deemed holy by countless Bengali Muslims — in 2016, was mocked earlier in the day by the BJP, the Congress and the Left for allegedly participating in communal politics ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.

“I saw somewhere on social and mainstream media, my coming here is being questioned with regard to whether this is some electoral equation. But when I go to Kashi’s Vishwanath temple, or the Pushkar, or gurdwaras, attend Durga Puja, Kali Puja, or the Midnight Mass of Christians, no such questions are raised. I go everywhere,” said Mamata, attacked repeatedly by the BJP and others over her alleged priority of tushtikaran (appeasement).

Monday was the death anniversary of Pir Saheb Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique whose mazar is situated at Furfura Sharif.

“I go to Christian festivals, I attend Ids, iftar. The way I extended my best wishes for Dol and Holi this month, I did so with equal enthusiasm for the ongoing month of Ramzan. I pray for everyone. So that everyone stays blessed, happy, in peace. The soil of Bengal is of harmony… the message from this platform is of harmony, unity, and peace for all,” added the chief minister, going on to recall how she had visited the shrine at least 15 times (thrice as chief minister).

Muslims and other minorities form about a third of the Bengal electorate and have largely been siding with Mamata election after election since the general election of 2009. With the rise of the BJP as the principal Opposition in the state, minority support goes a long way in helping the Trinamool Congress ward off the saffron threat, as minorities determine the electoral outcome in at least 120 of the state’s 294 Assembly seats.

Mamata’s visit came exactly a week after a 20-minute discussion on “development” at Nabanna with ISF chairperson Nawsad Siddique that triggered substantial speculation in the state’s corridors of power. But he wasn’t present during her visit on Monday.

The CPM saw in the visit her “electoral necessity”.

CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said: “Why now, after almost a decade? Is it because Trinamool is in a tight spot a year before the Assembly polls?”

“So she needs the help of (Pirzada) Taha Siddique, and decided to visit Furfura Sharif as elections are a year away,” he added, referring to one of Nawsad’s uncles, who is believed to wield considerable clout as an opinion-builder among sections of followers.

Taha, who often courts controversy with political remarks, was one of many from the Siddique clan whom Mamata met on Monday.

Responding to Taha’s recent remark, demanding a mosque at Digha in the context of the state government funding the construction of a Jagannath temple there, Chakraborty blamed Mamata.

“We are firmly against governments building places of worship and have stated that repeatedly. She has opened a Pandora’s box by using government money to build the Jagannath temple. Now it is for her to figure out how she will deal with the likes of Taha Siddique,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury tore into Mamata for the visit.

“The reason she went is clear as daylight. Her political compulsion led her there. The Congress leaders’ visit, for instance, was with no such objective,” said the former state Congress president, not long after the current state unit chief Subhankar Sarkar, along with the party’s Bengal minder Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Bengal observers Assaf Ali Khan and Amba Prasad, paid a visit to the shrine. This was hours before Mamata’s visit.

The BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari alleged that Mamata went to the shrine solely to consolidate her “vote bank”.

“She did that the last time she was worried ahead of an Assembly election (2016), she is doing this now… which shows she is worried. She only knows the politics of appeasement, so she went there…. I would urge every Hindu from Bengal to
watch her (Facebook) live,” said the leader of the Opposition.