Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar’s letter to the Pakistan Cricket Board pleading that he would ensure full and effective security to the Pakistan cricket team, reveals the Trinamool Congress government’s desire to woo the Muslim community with less than a month before the state goes to the polls.
In the backdrop of a pre-poll understanding between the BJP and the TMC, which has not been disputed by either of the two parties, Kumar’s letter is politically loaded.It is an unabashed attempt to tell West Bengal’s nearly 30 percent Muslim population that the TMC continues to have their interests in mind.
Should the Pakistan team agree to play the World T20 match, which was earlier scheduled to be played in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, it will fetch electoral gains to the TMC which, since coming to power in May 2011, has assiduously sought to expand its Muslim vote bank by weaning away a bulk of it from the Left Front.
Conversely, any India-Pakistan cricket match in poll-bound Bengal is likely to polarise the electorate across the state.