It was his resolve to build a Babri Masjid-like mosque in Murshidabad that led to the suspension of 62-year-old TMC MLA Humayun Kabir. But this is not the first time that he has faced disciplinary action in the party.
Kanir, who began his political career with the Congress and rose to become an MLA, joined the TMC, a year after the latter came to power in West Bengal, ending the Left Front’s 34-year rule. In TMC, he was made a minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet. But within three years, he was expelled from the party for six years for “anti-party activities”. In between, he joined the BJP in 2018, contested the Lok Sabha elections from Murshidabad, and then returned to the TMC in 2021 to become an MLA again, from Bharatpur.
His second stint in the TMC has been quite controversial, earning him the party’s reprimand on more than one occasion.
In May 2024, while campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls, Kabir made a controversial remark, saying that Muslims constituted 70 per cent of the population, while Hindus only 30 per cent in Murshidabad, and threatened to throw BJP supporters in the Bhagirathi river.
In November 2024, Kabir was issued a showcause notice for demanding that TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee be made deputy chief minister and home minister, the portfolio held by Chief Minister and Abishek’s aunt, Mamata Banerjee. He later had to apologise.
On March 13 this year, he was again served a show cause notice by TMC’s disciplinary committee in the Assembly for allegedly threatening Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
According to TMC sources, he has political clout in Rejinagar and Bharatpur Assembly constituencies in Murshidabad district. “In the last Lok Sabha election (2024), he mobilised minority votes of Berhampore constituency that helped our candidate and cricketer Yousuf Pathan to defeat veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Having said that, it is also true that he lacked organisational hold outside Bharatpur and Rejinagar. So, his exit from the party would not affect TMC, except for one or two seats in Murshidabad,” said a senior TMC leader.