KOLKATA: Expelled Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir on Wednesday announced the first list of 15 candidates from his newly floated Am Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP). He declared that the AJUP would contest 182 of the 294 assembly constituencies in the forthcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.
Kabir, who was expelled by the Trinamool Congress for 'anti-party activities', will contest from two constituencies -- Rejinagar and Nawda in Murshidabad -- though he was a sitting MLA from Bharatpur in the same district.
Addressing a press conference, Kabir said, "We will nominate candidates in 182 seats. Today, we are announcing nominees for constituencies in Malda and Murshidabad districts. The final list of candidates will be announced on Sunday afternoon."
He also claimed that the AIMIM led by Asaduddin Owaisi, in coordination with his party, is likely to contest a few seats in Bengal.
After being expelled by the ruling party in the state, Kabir recently started construction of a mosque modelled on the Babri Masjid in the Beldanga area of Murshidabad district triggering sharp political reactions across the state.
He also said his party would also field a non-Bengali Muslim candidate Poonam Begam from south Kolkata’s Bhabanipur, the most high profile constituency in the state where the Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari are taking on each other.
Political observers felt that Kabir’s decision to field a non-Bengali Muslim candidate might have an impact on the Trinamool's Muslim vote bank in the constituency.
However, they said the electoral impact of the new party will largely depend on whether it succeeds in splitting minority votes, which have traditionally consolidated behind the TMC in recent elections.
The Muslim share of the population in Bhabanipur is 20 per cent as per the 2011 census.
The contest in Bhabanipur has become a prestige battle, not merely for a seat in the Assembly but for political supremacy in a state where the face-off between Mamata and Suvendu has come to symbolise the broader TMC-BJP confrontation.
Among the candidates announced by Kabir are Bapan Ghosh from Purbasthali Uttar in Purba Bardhaman, Yasin Haidar, a former son-in-law of Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, from Kandi, and Syed Ahmed Kabir from Beldanga.
In Malda district, the party has fielded Royal Islam from Ratua, Abdul Minaz Sheikh from Maltipur, Muskura Bibi from Baishnabnagar, Abu Shaid from Manikchak, and Nasimul Haque from Sujapur.
Other nominees include Syed Khubaib Amin from Bharatpur, Anupam Rohdagir from Behala East, Imtiaz Molla from Farakka, and Bijoy Sheikh from Hariharpara.