After 'Babri' row, Trinamool turns up the heat on suspended MLA Humayun Kabir

Kolkata: Janata Unnayan Party (JUP) leader and suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir, who has emerged as a thorn in the ruling party’s side ahead of the Assembly elections, is now facing heat from the Mamata Banerjee government.

After work began on Wednesday on his proposed ‘Babri Masjid’ in Murshidabad’s Beldanga, an FIR was lodged seeking Kabir’s arrest for allegedly inciting communal tension.

The West Bengal police initiated the process of freezing the properties of Shariful Islam, father-in-law of Kabir’s daughter Najma Sultana, on charges of involvement in a case of drug trafficking. 

Police sources say properties worth Rs 10.73 crore are to be confiscated after a court order in the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances case. The Lalgola police under the Murshidabad district police are carrying out raids in several areas, including the Naldahari in Lalgola. Police sources say that at least 15 properties, including houses, shops, a school, rented property to bank, mango and lychee orchards and farmlands, along with 15 bank accounts and two cars would be confiscated.     

Denying any illegal activity, Humayun Kabir’s daughter Najma Sultana hit out at the TMC and Mamata Banerjee: “The whole operation is a political conspiracy meant to demean my father. And this is being done at the behest of Mamata Banerjee, as she cannot touch him in any other way. So they are targeting us, his nearest kin, only because my father raised his voice against the party. I'm married to a businessman in Lalgola and my father-in-law is also a businessman. The police had raided our properties earlier also. We have contacted our lawyers and they are looking into the case. The whole operation is a political witch-hunt."

In December 2025, Kabir was suspended from the party after he proposed to build a replica of the Babri Masjid in Beldanga in Murshidabad district and lay the foundation on December 6. With Mamata being annoyed over his proposal, the TMC suspended him for anti-party activities, saying the party firmly believes in secularism and pursues secular politics. The party also questioned his move to name the mosque Babri Masjid and unveil it on December 6, the day when the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished by a violent mob in 1992.

Kolkata mayor and TMC leader Firhad Hakim said the party warned him and asked why he was keen on a masjid when he could have built a school or college. Hakim said the aim is to create communal tension in the area before the elections. 

Meanwhile, the construction of the mosque, being built at a cost of Rs 50-55 crore, began on Wednesday. Around 5,000 locals are said to have joined the construction workers. The masjid is expected to be completed within two years and is said to have received funding from Bangladesh and the Middle East. 

Kabir said, “My efforts are for Islam, to please Allah and perform my devotion. It is not about imposing anything. What we name the masjid is the right of Muslims. This is Murshidabad and not Lucknow or Ayodhya.”

Countering allegations of stirring communal passion before the elections, Kabir questioned the spending of crores of rupees on the construction of the Rs 250-crore Jagannath Temple in Digha, the Durga Angan in Kolkata's New Town and the tallest Mahakali avatar of Lord Shiv in Siliguri. 

On Thursday, Kabir began the 22-km 'Babri March' from Plassey (Palashi) in Nadia district to Beldanga in Murshidabad. While he decided to cut short his rally, owing to the beginning of the State Higher Secondary exams, he rode a bike initially, then walked part of the yatra and later waved out from an open jeep, making himself the focus of the march.

Bharatpur MLA Kabir's gambit is expected to create realignment in the constituency, with over 70% Muslim population in the entire Murshidabad district. And he plans to contest at least 135 seats out of the total 294.

Political analyst Amitabh Tiwari notes that Muslims constitute 27% of West Bengal's population as per the 2011 census, which the BJP claims now may be closer to 30% or higher, given the illegal immigration from Bangladesh in the intervening period. The three districts of Malda, Murshidabad and Uttar Dinajpur have Muslim-majority populations of 50% or above. 

With the advent of Kabir on the political scene, the TMC, which is often accused of Muslim appeasement, faces another competitor in the field of Muslim socio-political mobilisation, which may alter the electoral outcome.