Essential to forge alliance with Left, Congress at the earliest to defeat Trinamool, BJP, says Nawshad Siddique

Indian Secular Front (ISF) leader Nawshad Siddique on Wednesday (January 21, 2026) said that it was essential to forge an alliance with the Congress and Left Front at the earliest to defeat the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Assembly polls.

Mr. Siddique who is the lone MLA of the ISF held a public meeting in Kolkata and said that such an alliance should be formed within a month.

“To defeat the Trinamool Congress and the BJP and to ensure that they can be easily defeated, we need to form an alliance within a month with Left parties and Congress,” the ISF leader told journalists.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front, Congress and ISF had forged an alliance with the ISF in the 2021 Assembly polls but the alliance did not result in much electoral success. Nawsad Siddique was the only MLA who was elected from Bhangar in the 2021 Assembly polls.

The rally by the ISF on Wednesday (January 21, 2026) comes as a show of strength at a time when suspended Trinamool Congress MlA from Murshidabad Humayun Kabir had announced setting up a political party to take on the Trinamool Congress and BJP.

The remarks by ISF MLA Nawsad Siddique assumes significance as the Muslim support base is crucial for Trinamool Congress in the upcoming Assembly polls. The political parties like ISF and Mr. Kabir party Jan Unnayan Party (JUP) are trying to eat out the minority support base of the Trinamool Congress. Muslims comprise 27.01% of the population of the State and they have supported the Trinamool Congress since 2011 Assembly polls. The Trinamool Congress fears that ISF and JUP can eat into its minority vote bank of the party.