During a rally at Brigade Ground in Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) unveiled its complete candidate lineup for West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats. TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee disclosed the list, featuring well-known figures. The list included several known anti-Hindu personalities such as former MP Mahua Moitra for Krishnanagar, Shahnawaz Ali Raihan from Malda South, Saayoni Ghosh from Jadavpur, Haji Nurul Islam from Basirhat.

Here’s a refresher on some instances of their anti-Hindu stance. 

Mahua Moitra

Mahua Moitra needs no introduction. Here’s one example. At India Today Conclave 2022, she describes what Ma Kali means to her. She said, “Kali, to me, is a meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess. You have the freedom to imagine your goddess.”

Shahnawaz Ali Raihan 

Trinamool Congress’s candidate from Malda South, Shahnawaz Ali Raihan, is supposedly a PhD student from the University of Oxford. He has made blatant anti-Hindu statements. Here is a video from 2020 where he calls Hindutva terror the biggest threat to the country. 

In the video, he says, “Stop calling BJP and RSS a communal and fascist party. Call it a terrorist party. The whole country has to stand up to uproot this terrorism. We’ve seen a lot up till now. If a villager comes asking for his rights, if he is a Dalit, he is told that he is a Maoist terrorist. If a Muslim stands up for his rights, he is told that he is an Islamic terrorist. But neither Maoists nor Islamic terrorists are a big threat to the internal security. Hindutva terror is the biggest threat to Hindustan. We have to accept this. When we tried to make people accept this, leftists, liberals, and intellectuals who are against the BJP stood with Chidambaram and Digvijay and condemned it. Even Congress is guilty of it. If Congress had taken strict action against Hindutva terror in its UPA 1 and 2 after the martyrdom of Hemant Karkare, we wouldn’t have been in this situation today. However, we see today that those who are politically against the BJP are not ideologically and organisationally against them. Now it is too late. But it is still not too late that we cannot free Hindustan from Hindutva terror. Today, we must tell Hindustan that our biggest single-point agenda is uprooting this terror from Hindustan. And those organisations, political parties, and human rights organisations that will protest peacefully should all come forward. First of all, they must accept that Hindutva terror is the biggest challenge for Hindustan and BJP and RSS are running this network.”

Shahnawaz Ali Raihan was the National Secretary for the student wing of Jamat-e-Islami, known as the Students Islamic Organization (SIO). The primary mission of SIO is to impart Islamic Dawah to students, using the Quran and Sunnah as their guiding principles. Raihan perceives the threat of Hindutva terror to be more severe than that posed by Islamic terrorists and Maoists.

Haji Nurul Islam

Haji Nurul Islam is said to be the mastermind behind the De Ganga riots that took place on September 6, 2010, led a mob of 500 people. This mob was responsible for looting and burning down shops and properties, as well as setting buses on fire. The motive behind these actions was to halt the local Durga Puja. Nurul Islam is now the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate from Basirhat for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Saayoni Ghosh

Saayoni Ghosh was declared as the TMC’s candidate for Jadavpur. Ghosh had previously made headlines for a controversial post that was disrespectful towards Bhagwan Shiva. This decision has reportedly caused disappointment within the Mamata camp, as Ghosh is viewed as Abhishek’s pick. 

On February 18, 2015, actress Saayoni Ghosh posted an anti-Hindu tweet featuring a female character using a condom on a Shivling, a sacred Hindu symbol. This tweet was shared on Maha Shivratri that year. Ghosh later apologised, claiming her account was hacked, and stated she lost interest in Twitter after joining in 2010. She accused her PR agent of notifying her about the hacking in 2017, leading to the account’s retrieval.

These are just four of the 42 candidates listed. It will come as no surprise if more (or all) of them turn out to be Hinduphobic.