Humayun Kabir eyes tie-up with AIMIM for West Bengal polls

Kolkata: Suspended Trinamool MLA Humayun Kabir on Sunday said that he is likely to tie up with the AIMM in the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal as he claimed that he had a discussion with AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi.

Kabir said, "We are likely to enter into an alliance with AIMIM. I had a word with Owaisi. We will fight in 135 seats and expect to have a major representation in the state assembly."

After suspension from Trinamool Congress on Friday, Kabir announced that he would float a new party on December 22. However, the Bharatpur MLA later said that he will not resign from the MLA post as people of his constituency have asked him to stay as MLA. Kabir said he had expected one lakh people to assemble in the foundation stone laying ceremony for the replica of Babri Masjid on December 6, but the number touched several lakhs, who came with bricks. Several lakhs were stopped by Krishnanagar Police on their way to Murshidabad, he said.


The tie-up with AIMIM could be significant as the Owaisi-led party won five seats in recent Bihar polls in Seemanchal region, which is minority dominated, like Murshidabad. The Kabir factor, if it is able to tap Muslims, unhappy with Trinamool, could cut a pie from Banerjee's votebank. The Muslim population in 2021 assembly polls had voted en-bloc for Banerjee, specially in Murshidabad and Malda.

Meanwhile, Sanatanis organised a mega Gita path programme on Sunday ('Gita Path in 5 lakh voices') where BJP's top leadership, including state president Samik Bhattacharya, junior minister Sukanta Majumdar, LoP Suvendu Adhikari and several others participated at Brigade Parade ground.

Bhattacharya, while attending the event, said, "In India's soil, Gita Path is quite natural and this is our culture. Yesterday, we saw that foundation stone for Babri Masjid was laid. We saw some fundamentalists reach the spot with bricks. The ruling government is in favour of fundamentalists, not Indian Muslims and not favouring refugees and Hindus."

Responding to the comments, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, "There is an attempt to mislead people in the name of Gita. Misuse of Gita is done to polarize religion in Bengal by BJP."