Muslim belt completely switches over to TMC | Economic Times

The Congress bastion of Malda and Murshidabad, a Muslim-majority region where the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has historically been very weak, decisively switched over to the AITC this time, and the urban seats of Kolkata too voted in the party's favour as the Centre’s Covid-19 management came under scrutiny, leading to bumper gains for the party in the last two phases of the assembly polls.In Birbhum, which has about 37% Muslim population, the AITC led in 10 out of 11 seats. Birbhum voted on April 29.Sixteen seats out of 20 in Murshidabad, five out of nine in Malda and all nine in Kolkata went to the AITC. According to the census, 51% of Malda’s population is Muslim, and the figure stands at 66% in Murshidabad.In 2016, except Kolkata, where it swept the polls, the AITC had limited gains in Murshidabad and Malda. It did not win any of the 12 seats in Malda district, while the Left won three and the Congress swept the region, winning seven seats. In Murshidabad, the AITC had won four out of 22 seats, as did the Left, and the Congress bagged 14 seats.Polling has yet to take place in Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Jangipur owing to the deaths of two candidates due to Covid-19, but chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she was confident of both seats going her party’s way.The AITC’S Malda president Krishnendu Chowdhury told ET that the party was in tatters in the two districts all these years because “Suvendu Adhikari, as the observer of both districts, had alienated party workers and was helping the BJP”. “But not just the Muslims, even the poor Hindus voted for us. The Congress is a spent force here. The Centre’s Covid management, plus the way it was handled in BJP-ruled states, opened the eyes of our people,” he said.The primary reason for Malda having remained a Congress bastion till now was the larger-than-life legacy of former Congress veteran and eight-time MP from the region, Gani Khan Choudhury.