"No Longer The Person I Knew": Trinamool Ex Leader On Mamata Banerjee

Humayun Kabir – the suspended Trinamool Congress MLA who launched his Jannata Unnayun Party Monday morning, with plans to contest next year's Bengal election – has launched a broadside at his 'boss', Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, all but accusing her of corruption.

In a fierce attack that included jabs at the Bharatiya Janata Party, Kabir acknowledged Mamata Banerjee's "unquestionable" leadership – the redoubtable Trinamool boss has guided her party to three electoral wins, i.e., two federal and one state – over the BJP but declared "the Chief Minister is no longer the same person I knew… she is totally different from 15 years ago…"

At a public meeting in Beladanga, where he also announced eight (very early) candidates for next year's election, Kabir said his "mission" is to remove Mamata Banerjee from power.

"In 2026, she will not become the Chief Minister and will not be sworn in… she will be branded as ex-Chief Minister," he said, hinting also that collusion with the BJP had allowed the latter's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, to expand its Bengal footprints.

"Don't talk back to me anymore…" Kabir raged at the Trinamool leader, in an apparently complete burning of bridges, "What is the source of income of your family? How did you get it? I will reveal all. Members of your family will sleep in fear now…"

Interestingly, while Kabir went hard at Mamata Banerjee, declaring, "I know the history of what you have done… Allah has kept many of my memories (and) I can remember many dates clearly", he praised her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, who is regarded as the No 2 in the party.

"I have a soft corner for Abhishek... He is a talented youth. In the coming days, he will be able to prove himself as a good politician… if he gets the freedom to implement his decisions."

The comments came after Kabir - suspended over disagreements with the Trinamool leadership, including the building of a Babri Masjid replica in Murshidabad – announced his party's name. The JUP, he said, would work for the "aam aadmi, including Muslims".

For the BJP, Kabir had this promise, "There will be 70 Muslim MLAs (in Bengal; the JUP intends to contest 135 seats)" and challenge, "If you have the power, touch me with your hand…"

If Kabir and his JUP make it to next year's election, they are expected to ally with Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which is steadily increasing its footprint outside Hyderabad, with positive results in two consecutive elections in neighbouring Bihar.

The Trinamool has played down, and even dismissed, Kabir and his party.

Party spokesperson Jayprakash Majumdar said such parties had been floated before and then sunk into oblivion. "It is nothing more than a communal provocation," he said.

The BJP, meanwhile, has claimed Kabir is working with the Trinamool, that his apparent discord with the party is a ruse to spirit votes away from the saffron party. "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.

Kabir has a chequered past in Bengali politics.

In 2015, he was expelled by the Trinamool for six years for criticising Mamata Banerjee and alleging that she was trying to make her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, the 'king'.

He contested the 2016 election as an independent candidate and lost. He then joined the Congress but jumped to the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The BJP fielded him as its candidate from Murshidabad but he could only finish third – after the Trinamool and Congress.