Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) chief Humayun Kabir Friday sparked a controversy after threatening to beat up BJP workers in Murshidabad district.

Addressing a public meeting in Murshidabad’s Rejinagar, Humayun Kabir said, “I told (Chief Minister) Suvendu Adhikari, it is good that you have won and the BJP has won. But ask (your) party not to boast too much in Murshidabad.”

“If they (BJP workers) cross the limits, there will be trouble. Lakhs will hit the streets, and I will lead the community. We will beat them up. There will be no one left to hold the BJP flag here. The BJP district president will also vanish,” threatened Nowda MLA Kabir.

Reacting to his statements, Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh said, “Once Mamata Banerjee and her nephew made statements like this. Look at their condition now. One is trying to get cheap publicity by saying all this. But one should not forget that the government has changed in Bengal.”

CPI(M) leader Shatarup Ghosh, too, condemned Kabir’s remarks. He said, “Kabir should be immediately arrested. He made controversial comments in 2024 as well when the TMC was in power. But he was not arrested. After such communal and controversial comments, we want to see that he is arrested. If he is not arrested, then it will prove that he has a link with the BJP.”

Kabir was expelled from the TMC last year after he announced plans to construct a Babri Masjid replica in the Muslim-majority Murshidabad district.

He later formed the AJUP and announced an alliance with the AIMIM to contest the Bengal polls. The alliance, though, did not survive after it was alleged that Kabir had accepted money from the BJP to harm the electoral prospects of the then-ruling TMC.

Kabir himself contested two seats, Rejinagar and Nowda, and won both, but chose to retain his Nowda seat.