As Bharatpur MLA Humayun Kabir on Monday launched a political outfit — ‘Janata Unnayan Party’ – days after he was suspended from the TMC for going ahead with his plans to lay the foundation stone of a Babri-like mosque in Murshidabad, he launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of duping Muslims.
While launching his party at a rally in Murshidabad, Kabir said he plans to field candidates in as many as 200 of the 294 Assembly seats in West Bengal in next year’s state polls, and announced the names of eight candidates.
Kabir said he would contest from two seats, Beldanga and Rejinagar, and asserted that he would ensure that the TMC fails to win a single seat in Murshidabad district.
“I will contest from Beldanga and Rejinagar seats in Murshidabad district and will win both. There are 22 Assembly seats in Murshidabad district. I will make TMC zero in Murshidabad. I will ensure that in this district, TMC wins no seats at all. The BJP may win one or two seats because of their money power,” Kabir said.
Hitting out at TMC supremo, Kabir said, “Mamata Banerjee will not be sworn in as chief minister in 2026. She will be the ex-chief minister. She is no longer the same person I knew and is now beyond the reach of the common man.”
“When I joined TMC from Congress (2012), I had met Mamata Banerjee. I had no conditions that day. I did not want to be a minister. But Mamata Banerjee during those days and Mamata Banerjee in the present day are entirely different persons. She had called me a traitor, but she has duped the Muslims. I challenge her to a debate on any television channel. So far, she has only given lip service and sermons to Muslims, nothing concrete,” Kabir said.
He also targeted BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari. “The Leader of the Opposition (Suvendu Adhikari) had said that he would throw out Muslim MLAs from the Assembly… We may give candidates for 200 seats, out of which 100 may win — 70 will be Muslims, while 30 Hindu candidates. Then we will march to the Assembly,” he said, adding he plans to hold a rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Grounds in January. “That day I will show how many people are supporting us,” he added.
Stating that his party will speak for the ‘aam aadmi’ (common people) of the state and their upliftment, Kabir said: “We will fight against the BJP and TMC. We will give a jolt to TMC in the Assembly polls. We are ready to fight alone but are also open to having tie-ups with like-minded parties in the state.”
Claiming that he consciously did not retain any remnant of the Congress or the Trinamool while naming the new outfit, Kabir said his first preference for poll symbol would be ‘table’, on which he had contested the 2016 state polls as an Independent, while ‘twin roses’ would be his second choice.
He also launched his party’s manifesto and unveiled the party’s flag, which has yellow, green, and white.
Kabir also announced the names of eight candidates, two of whom are his namesakes, from the Bhagabangola and Raninagar seats. He named Manish Pandey for Murshidabad and Nisha Chatterjee for Ballygunge in south Kolkata. Haji Ibrar Hossain was named for Kharagpur Rural in Paschim Medinipur, Muskera Bibi for Baisnabnagar in Malda, and Wahidur Rahaman for Harirampur in Dakshin Dinajpur.
Reacting to the development, TMC spokesperson Jayprakash Majumdar said such parties have been floated before and sunk into oblivion. “It is nothing more than a communal provocation,” he said.
The BJP accused Kabir of working to help the TMC return to power.
“Kabir will not be a factor in the next Assembly polls. He will face the drubbing of the electorate along with his old friend TMC, with which he is still in touch in a clandestine manner. Both Kabir and his new party will be rejected by the people of Bengal,” state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya claimed, adding Kabir was trying to split “BJP votes” in the Assembly polls.
The TMC had suspended Kabir on December 4 after his announcement to build a Babri-style mosque triggered a massive row.
On December 6, the day the Babri Masjid was razed in Ayodhya in 1992, a defiant Kabir laid the foundation stone for the mosque at Rejinagar, creating a dust-up in state politics.
Kabir has had a tryst with most of the major political parties in the state over the last 10 years.
In 2015, he was “expelled” by the TMC for six years for criticising the CM and alleging that she was trying to make her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, the “king”.
He contested the 2016 assembly elections as an Independent from the Rejinagar seat, but lost to Congress. He subsequently joined the Congress, which then had a huge presence in the district, but switched to the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP fielded him as its candidate in the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat, and managed to secure the third spot after the TMC and Congress nominees. He then returned to the TMC and, in 2021, became the MLA of Bharatpur.