Urging people not to “waste” their votes by supporting either the Congress, the Left Front, or Humayun Kabir’s newly formed outfit, the AJUP, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday said that voting for any of the three parties would mean voting for the BJP.
The TMC MP, who is considered number 2 in the party and heir apparent of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was campaigning in the Muslim-dominated Naoda Assembly seat in Murshidabad district.
“Voting for the Congress or Adhir Babu, of CPI(M), or Humayun babu means casting the vote to the BJP,” Abhishek said, referring to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is contesting from Baharampur in Murshidabad, and suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir, who recently launched his outfit AJUP, which is contesting the elections in alliance with the AIMIM. Kabir has pockets of influence in Murshidabad district. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Kabir had won from Bharatpur on a TMC ticket.
“After winning, every party’s MLA joined the BJP in Bengal. TMC is the only party where BJP leaders joined. In India, there are 1,550 political parties, but only the TMC is fighting against the BJP. TMC and Congress fought the Meghalaya polls. The Congress won five seats, and we (TMC) also won five seats. All the Congress MLAs later joined the BJP, but our MLAs are still fighting against the BJP,” the MP from Diamond Harbour said.
A senior leader of TMC said, “Our party leadership is suspecting that anti-BJP vote may divide in this district, which may help the BJP to win more seats from this district. That is why Abhishek Banerjee attacked Congress, CPI(M), and AJUP.”
He also accused Adhir and Kabir of being agents of the BJP.
“The BJP has deployed three agencies in this district, and three agents are in charge of it. The first agent is the one you already defeated two years ago —Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The second agent is Humayun Kabir, and along with them is Delhi’s Vanish Kumar. We will have to strengthen our fight against all three agencies. There is no space for differences of opinion about this,” Abhishek said, referring to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom the TMC calls ‘Vanish Kumar” for deletion voters in the SIR exercise.
Hitting out at Kabir for seeking votes in the name of religion, the TMC leader said that the AJUP’s politics was no different from that of the BJP.
“They (BJP and Kabir’s party) do politics in the name of religion. On one hand, the BJP is doing politics in the name of mandir and ‘Jai Shri Ram’, and on the other hand, Humayun Kabir is doing politics in the name of masjid. My religion is my personal affair at home. Politics should be about humanity and serving people after being elected by them. Those who seek votes in the name of religion are politically bankrupt,” Abhishek asserted.
“Suddenly, he (Humayun Kabir) spoke about constructing the Babri Masjid. It was demolished in 1992, and almost 27 years later, he joined the BJP and became its candidate in 2019. Back then, did he not consider constructing the Babri Masjid? He joined hands with those who demolished it. If you cast a single vote for them, it will imply an indirect vote for BJP,” the TMC leader said.