Click to play videoNew Delhi: While Rahul Gandhi is trying to mobilise the youth of UP to help Congress regain stronghold, Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is trying to salvage some lost political ground by engaging the Muslim majority in Nandigram.
Bhattacharjee met the president of Muslim body Jamat Ulema-i-Hind Mohammed Madani to discuss the March 14 killings in Nandigram.
Among the victims of the police firing were many supporters of the Muslim organisation which was part of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee, that fought against land acquisition for the proposed chemical hub in Nandigram.
Over the years, the Left has found common ground with the Jamat on issues like anti- Americanism. But after Nandigram, many Left leaders fear that a fall-out with the body will badly hurt its secular credentials.
So when Buddhadeb chose to talk with Madani on his trip to Delhi on Monday, it was the Chief Minister and not the Muslim leader who needed a favour.
“He wanted me to play the ice-breaker, and I assured him that I will go and speak to my people who are there," said Madani after the meeting.
Sources in the CPM say the Jamat chief has promised Buddha that its supporters, not native to Nandigram, will be asked to move out of the area.
But despite the apparent bonhomie in Delhi, the Jamat leadership in West Bengal doesn’t seem too willing to forgive and forget.
“West Bengal is a tougher place to talk to us, so he chose to talk in Delhi. But that’s not going to change what we think. The CPM have made our people into goondas," says Jamat Ulema-i-Hind secretary, Siddikulla Chowdhury.
While this may seem as a hurried damage control exercise, the irony remains that while on one hand CPM terms the Jamat a fundamentalist organisation, on the other it woos it in a desperate effort to regain lost support in Nandigram.
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