A Muslim woman, who people belonging to her community from Kolkata’s Port area claimed is mentally unsound, withdrew her nomination for Kolkata corporation elections, to be held on December 19.
Apart from Mumtaj Ali, Sadananda Prasad, the candidate from the adjoining ward also withdrew his nomination. The BJP claimed that the duo were threatened by the locals for being saffron party candidates.
Mumtaj, who switched over to the BJP from Congress in 2017, admitted that she was threatened by some people, including her family members, but claimed that she did not get support from her party. “Tell me, if I am threatened, should I not receive help from my party? The BJP did not stand by me in my hour of crisis,” Mumtaj told THE WEEK.
Kolkata Port is largely a non non-Bengali, Muslim-dominated area. Mumtaj said she would have stood her ground had the BJP offered her a ticket for ward number 133, where Prasad was given a ticket.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the BJP, she said she sent her CV to the BJP state office through WhatsApp, saying she is only interested in contesting from ward number 133. She said she wanted to stand from there because as a Congress worker, she worked in the area for a long time. The area has 70 per cent Muslims, and 30 per cent Hindus.
“The roads were terribly bad and there is lack of water in the ward. I could have banked on the anti-incumbency. But ward 134 is heavily dominated by Muslims, about 90 per cent. I stood no chance of winning as a BJP candidate. In the previous election, in ward number 134, the TMC candidate received 97 per cent votes,” said Mumtaj.
She said her troubles increased after she joined the BJP.
“My friends and my mother-in-law abused me for being part of the BJP. I used to call local media people to my home and praise Modi ji and Yogi ji. You know how Yogi ji is treated in our community. My family members abused me and neighbours used to call me mad and mentally retarded.”
She said despite these hardships, she continued to support the BJP because she felt the TMC rule was “harmful and disastrous” for the people of Bengal.
“My respect for the party (the BJP) reduced when I went to file my nomination. No party colleague was accompanying me. I went alone to file the nomination. On the day of scrutiny too, I went alone. I called up my partymen, but they refused to join me. I waited till evening and withdrew my candidature.”
BJP co-in-charge of West Bengal Amit Malviya is in the city to look after the polls. Many candidates complained to him that they cannot campaign as they are being threatened by the TMC leadership. However, Malviya, sources said, asked them approach the police and even move court, to the surprise of the candidates.
The other two state in-charges of the party, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arvind Menon, are not present in West Bengal. While Vijayvargiya has been skipping party meetings held in the state, Menon is busy with Uttar Pradesh elections.
