It has been over two months since the foundation stone for the Babri Masjid replica was laid at Beldanga in West Bengal's Murshidabad, and the political landscape has changed considerably since then.
Humayun Kabir, the suspended Trinamool Congress MLA who went on to found the Janata Unnayan Party (JUP), was seen as a rising political force, but his influence appears to have waned considerably just weeks before the Bengal Assembly elections.
On Thursday, the JUP chief led a 22-km 'Babri Yatra' from the Palashi (or Plassey) Monument to Beldanga. Kabir, who had drawn lakhs during the December 6 foundation event, was accompanied by only a few hundred supporters.
Only 10,000 people had gathered even during the brick-laying event, which marked the beginning of the construction of the replica of the Babri mosque, on Wednesday.
The launch of his party, on December 22, had drawn crowds more interested in the proposed mosque than in his political platform, and the trend appears to have only intensified since then.
Ali Rahaman, who joined the 'Babri Yatra', told NDTV, "We have come from Bankura. It is a big day for us. This masjid is a big step for Islam and it is important because the Babri Masjid was demolished. But politics is different from this. We Muslims are supporting this because of its religious significance and not for politics."
BJP's Campaign Hurting Kabir?
Kabir continues to say he intends to play "kingmaker" in the upcoming Assembly elections and is prepared to back the BJP if it helps keep the Trinamool out of power. Ironically, however, it is the BJP's campaign - with its focus on infiltration, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's "appeasement" of Muslims and her "vote-bank" politics - which may be hurting the JUP chief.
In the West Bengal Assembly, BJP MLA Agnimitra Pal recently said, "Madam Banerjee is spending a lot of money on madrassas, but only terrorists are being produced in them. No engineers or physicians are being produced at all. Thus, by providing funding to madrassas, West Bengal is inciting terrorism."
In both Murshidabad and Malda, Muslim-majority districts in which Kabir is hoping his fledgling party will do well, this approach by the BJP has made Muslims uneasy. Mamata Banerjee is also using this politically by attending every Muslim gathering and accusing the BJP of using Humayun Kabir to try to split the Muslim vote.
Banerjee's approach is seen to be working, with Muslims now leaning more towards the chief minister and the Trinamool Congress. Kabir may still have some influence in his hometown of Beldanga at most, but even that is no longer a cakewalk. Several Muslim Trinamool leaders in the area are actually happy Kabir is no longer there, because their political significance has increased significantly, and they are putting in more effort to make the party victorious.
Other Challenges
Banerjee is now banking on Hariharpur MLA Niamot Sheikh to take on Kabir in Murshidabad, and he seems to be getting along well with all the other Muslim leaders.
The JUP chief has also been somewhat undermined by corruption charges against his family members as well as action against them. Days before the construction of the Babri replica was to begin, several properties of Kabir's close relatives were ordered to be seized by the Union Finance Ministry under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Another front on which Kabir is not getting traction is his attempts to tie up with the Indian Secular Front, which has its headquarters in south Bengal. No decision has been taken on seat-sharing and, sources said, the party does not want to see Kabir do well because it believes it is the true representative of Muslims in the state.
(Jayanta Ghosal is Contributing Editor, NDTV, and Rittick Mondal is Principal Correspondent, NDTV)
