Rebel and expelled Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir — who recently shot into prominence for laying the foundation stone of a second Babri Mosque in Murshidabad district of Bengal, drawing lakhs of Muslims to attend the function — on Wednesday, iterated that he would emerge as the “kingmaker” post 2026 Assembly elections, as no political party in the State would be able to gain majority.
Kabir, who is likely to announce a new political outfit on December 22, asked the “media and all other stakeholders” to “watch out for the names of the office bearers of my party and then make a conclusion.”
Slamming the Trinamool Congress for considering the Muslim population of the State as their “paternal fief” so as to perennially use them as a vote bank, he said, “Now on I will tell the Muslims not to be a vote bank but a stakeholder in the power politics.”
Disclosing that his party would field candidates in 135 seats, Kabir said that, “in Bengal, Muslims voters have an influence in about 90 seats with a voter percentage hovering between 40 and 70 percent. So, I wish to tell them to vote for me and let my party win these 90 seats. I will leave the remaining 204 seats, let the TMC and BJP fight, whoever wins will have to come to me to form a government without the support of my party. No party in Bengal will be able to form a government. Just wait and watch what happens in the State’s electoral arena in a few months from now.”
Kabir was recently suspended from the TMC after he openly proposed to construct a Babri Mosque in Murshidabad.
It is another matter, however, that a section of the critics suspect whether he has been fielded by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to pull back the fleeting Muslim votes on the one hand and help Hindu votes come behind her after she suspended him on the Babri Mosque issue.
Referring to Kabir’s “confidence” of winning 90 seats, TMC spokesperson Arup Chakrabarty said “let him first win his own seat at Rejinagar and let his party first save the deposits in the seats they would contest he is presently daydreaming let him daydream by the time he emerges from his sleep the TMC will win and Mamata Banerjee will have formed her government for the fourth time.”
Meanwhile, a section of the State leadership of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), of Asaduddin Owaisi, which had been expanding its base in Bengal on Wednesday, said that they were not presently thinking of forming any alliance with Kabir’s party, saying “his views and conduct are politically suspect and ideologically incompatible.” Kabir, however, said he had kept his options for talks open for any like-minded group.
