The communal violence across several parts of West Bengal comes at a time when the ruling Trinamool Congress has stepped up its Muslim outreach following the Sagardighi bypoll setback. The incidents flared up around Ram Navami while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was sitting on a highly publicised dharna against the BJP-ruled Centre – thus taking attention away from her campaign against the Centre of denying Bengal funds and targeting its leaders using investigating agencies. Both sides traded charges over the violence, with the TMC blaming the BJP for provoking the same to serve its agenda, and the BJP accusing the state government of “selective (anti-Hindu) bias” in handling the situation. “They (BJP leaders) have hired goons from outside the state to orchestrate communal riots. Nobody has stopped their processions, but they do not have the right to march with swords and bulldozers. How did they get the audacity to do this in Howrah?” Mamata said, adding that routes had been changed “to particularly target and attack one community”. However, the West Bengal administration has also come under intense scrutiny for not being adequately prepared given that at least one of the sites that saw violence, Howrah, had seen similar clashes on Ram Navami last year, and was reportedly tense since. A day before the festival, the CM had warned that any type of communal incitement in the name of 'Ram Navami' would not be tolerated. A senior TMC leader admitted the party was worried about minority votes slipping away if the perception gained ground that the state government had failed to ensure their safety. Speaking about the 2021 Assembly poll results, the TMC leader said: “The minorities are afraid of the BJP, and we gained seats in all minority areas where traditionally the CPI(M) and Congress were strong.” A slip in the minority vote will hit the TMC over and above the damage it has suffered on account of corruption charges and cases against its leaders. Since the loss in the minority-dominated Sagardighi bypoll – a seat it had held for years – Mamata has shuffled around the key Muslim leadership in the party and announced a separate development board for minorities. However, a senior leader of the TMC said the violence might set the party back. “Minorities are afraid of the BJP but they are also afraid of these riots. Now, a section of the educated among the minorities are saying that under the CPI(M) regime such riots never happened. These are bad signals.” Following last year's violence, the CPI(M) had held a peace procession in Howrah, but while local TMC leaders had paid visits, the senior leadership had stayed away. Following the recent violence, when Bengal Cooperative Minister Arup Roy, the local TMC MLA from Howrah (Central), tried to visit the area, his car was ransacked. Both the BJP and CPI(M) have spotted a chance to move against the TMC. Accusing the ruling party of bias after he was stopped from meeting victims of Shibpur violence in Howrah on Sunday, West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said: "The CM is working not for all but for only people of one religion.” CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “Either the violence was an intelligence failure, or the TMC and BJP are in this together to communally polarise society. But we will fight it and will not allow communal politics in Bengal.”
