Bengal polls: Owaisi all guns against CM Mamata on Muslim representation

Muslims are almost 29 per cent of the population in West Bengal, but "only seven per cent have government jobs", he said.

Patna: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday criticised West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for “unsatisfactory” representation of Muslims in the government sector in the state, and questioned their socio-economic conditions during the TMC rule.

He also said Muslims in some parts of West Bengal, where assembly elections will be held this month, live in “abject poverty”.

Responding to a question by journalists in Bihar’s capital Patna about the release of TMC’s manifesto in Urdu, Owaisi said, “Mamata Banerjee operates with a dual face (towards Muslims). While her party has released its manifesto in Urdu, the representation of Muslims in West Bengal (government sector) remains unsatisfactory.”

Muslims are almost 29 per cent of the population in West Bengal, but “only seven per cent have government jobs”, he said.

The AIMIM chief, whose party has forged an alliance with suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan Party in West Bengal, claimed, “Muslims live in abject poverty in regions like Malda and Murshidabad”.

Owaisi alleged that the highest school drop-out rate in West Bengal is among Muslims, and many girls belonging to the community have “low literacy rates”.

“Last year, the Calcutta High Court cancelled five lakh Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates, about three lakh of which belonged to Muslims,” he claimed.

The elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly will be held in two phases – on April 23 and 29. Votes will be counted on May 4.

Owaisi also criticised the Centre for reconvening the Budget Session of Parliament, after a brief recess, to pass bills to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816 so that the women’s reservation law can be implemented at the earliest.

“The bills to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats should ideally be tabled after April 29 (last day of voting in ongoing assembly polls) because a significant number of MPs are preoccupied with elections,” he said.

The AIMIM chief also complained that the copies of the bill have not been circulated among MPs.

“It will suddenly be given to us on April 16, the day the Budget session reconvenes. This has been the modus operandi of the BJP. We usually need time to study the bills presented in Parliament to form an opinion,” he said.