Bengal polls 2021: Indian Secular Front's Abbas Siddique ditches Owaisi, joins Congress-Left alliance
17-February-2021

The Indian Secular Front (ISF) of Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui, an influential cleric of Furfura Sharif Dargah in West Bengal's Hooghly, has joined the Congress-Left alliance for the upcoming Assembly polls in the eastern state. The announcement was made by Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Left Front Chairman Biman Bose on Tuesday at a joint press conference in Kolkata.

"In the upcoming 2021 assembly elections, we will fight as an alliance of the Left Front, Congress and the Indian Secular Front," Chowdhury said. Not just the ISF, he said, the RJD and several other smaller parties will also be accommodated in the alliance.

Meanwhile, Siddiqui told India TV that seat-sharing talks are underway and demanded from the Congress-Left alliance to declare that the two parties will not field candidates on seats from where ISF will enter the fray. Siddiqui said that Owaisi had promised him to support his decisions.

"We have submitted our list of 70-80 seats. We will support the Left-Congress wherever they will contest. If our demands are not met, we will contest alone,� he said.

To a question about AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi�s support to ISF, he said, �I hope he (Owaisi) will support the ISF� and underlined that the doors of his organisation are open to all barring the TMC and the BJP.

He said that �parties that are opposed to the ideologies of the BJP and TMC should come together to stop the two parties�.

The development might upset Owaisi who during his visit to West Bengal last month met Siddiqui and declared his support to the ISF. West Bengal assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May later this year.