Ruling Front's Fear of Alienation of The Muslim Voters
Muslims form a large fraction the voters in West Bengal. Members of the ruling front acknowledge that the police claim of Rizwanur Rahman committing suicide is alienating Muslim voters. MJ Akbar writes:
- "The fate of Rizwan ur Rehman, the young man whose death in suspicious circumstances has set off a firestorm in Bengal. The Muslim vote, my Calcuttan friend said bitterly, had become like an item number in Hindi films. It was used to pump up the box office, and then dumped completely from the script."
- "Left bulwark in Bengal has been the substantial Muslim vote: Muslims account for 27% of the population and over 30% of the vote since they tend to vote in larger numbers. This support has weakened in rural areas because of Nandigram, and in Kolkata because of the case of a young man called Rizwan ur Rehman."
Veteran Bengali politician Jyoti Basu has said:
- "'Yes, the state government's image has received a beating due to the delay in transferring the policemen who had allegedly coerced Rizwanur. We have suffered politically"
Read more about this topic: Rizwanur Rahman
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