Indian Secular Front (ISF) chief Naushad Siddiqui on Wednesday targeted both the ruling TMC and the main opposition party, BJP, accusing them of unleashing fear among people for votes, and said that he was ready to form an alliance with the Left Front and the Congress to stop TMC and BJP from coming to power in West Bengal in this year’s Assembly elections.
The ISF, formed ahead of 2021 Assembly polls, had fought the elections that year in alliance with the Left, which had also tied with the Congress. ISF was the only party of the three to win a seat in the Assembly that year. However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party decided to go alone, and failed to win a single parliamentary seat.
Addressing a rally at Kolkata’s Shahid Minar on the party’s foundation day, the ISF chief blamed the TMC and the BJP for the problems in the Election Commission’s SIR drive in the state.
“Before the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP and TMC used the fear of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and NRC (National Register for Citizens). The BJP said it will throw people out through CAA and NRC. (TMC supremo) Mamata Banerjee said she would not allow CAA and NRC to be implemented in West Bengal. Similarly, in 2026, before the elections, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari is going around saying that he will snatch the voting rights through SIR. While Mamata Banerjee is saying that she will not allow SIR to be implemented, but we are already running around with our documents and papers “, said Siddiqui.
Accusing the TMC of not being serious about preventing the deletion of genuine voters’ names, despite its public posturing, the lone ISF MLA said, “Mamata Banerjee initially said she would not allow SIR, but did little to stop the exercise.”
According to him, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could have assured the people of the state and ended the “harassment” of people in the SIR exercise. “Mamata Banerjee could have called an all-party meeting on this issue. ISF would have attended the meeting for the people and told the government that we are beside them in any work that would bring clarity and transparency in the exercise. But will she do this? No. Because they all want us to live in fear.”
“The TMC government could have brought a motion in the Assembly condemning the harassment of people in the SIR exercise. And could have filed a case in the Supreme Court. But they will not do this,” the Bhangar MLA claimed, alleging the TMC government was not providing residential certificates to people. “They do not want us to be free of fear,” he added.
Siddiqui, who has also received SIR notice and would appear for hearing with all necessary documents, said he was not against the SIR exercise but its process.
“The EC has sent SIR notice to (Nobel laureate and Bharat Ratna) Amartya Sen. They did not even spare the family members of freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose… I have got a hearing notice, but I have no fear because of Article 326 (of the Constitution), I have the right to vote,” he said.
“There is an attempt to terrorise the ordinary electorate in the name of SIR. People who have all the valid documents and have been living in the country for ages are called for hearings and asked to submit documents unnecessarily. ISF will launch protests if the harassment continues. We are not against SIR, but its hasty and inconsistent implementation by the EC at the instigation of the BJP,” he said.
“To defeat the TMC and BJP, we are ready to join hands with the Congress, Left and other parties. We will have final talks by the end of this month,” he said.
On the issue of Bengali migrant workers getting allegedly targeted in BJP-ruled states on suspicion of being illegal Bangladeshis, Siddiqui accused the TMC of failing to protect the interests of migrant workers. Calling it “witch-hunting and attacks on Bengali-speaking migrants, many of them Muslims”, the ISF MLA urged the Centre, state governments to take effective steps to stop such incidents.
The ISF chief also accused the TMC government of not being serious about the uplift of minority communities and said it was “playing with their future”.
On welfare of minorities
Accusing the TMC of ‘doublespeak’ on the issue of minority welfare and development and not being serious, he said, “Not all real Dalits have come under state reservation benefits.”
Siddique said underprivileged Muslims who deserve to be included under the OBC quota should be brought within its purview, adding that the ISF favours extending the benefit to 10 per cent of such people.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s stay on an earlier Calcutta High Court order striking down the inclusion of 77 communities as OBCs under the 2012 Act, Siddique noted that the apex court’s order has allowed the state’s revised lists to continue for now as the matter is still under hearing.
“The biggest problem of the Muslims in West Bengal is the new OBC certificate being issued by the Mamata Banerjee-led government. It (OBC certificate) has no meaning as it is only in name. One will sit for the exam and sit for the viva. However, once the list is released, one will not be able to secure jobs under the quota. So this is a curse, it is just for namesake,” he said.
Alleging that fake SC/ST certificates have been issued by the ruling dispensation, he said, “If the ISF ever gets the chance to have a say in the government in the future, it would ensure that all those entitled to reservation benefits received them.” He said there are over one crore adivasis (tribals) in the state and expressed concern that many “real adivasis” were left out when over 1.6 crore SC/ST certificates were distributed.
Siddiqui also hit out at the chief minister for making a U-turn on the implementation of the Centre’s new Waqf law in the state. “Mamata Banerjee first said that she will not accept it (Waqf law) and suddenly one night, she implements it,” he said, demanding the scrapping of the Waqf (Amendment) Act.