West Bengal Masjid manoeuvre: Kabir’s quest, Mamata’s test

Humayun Kabir is challenging the TMC’s undisputed hold over Muslim voters in West Bengal, projecting himself as a son of the soil and an alternative to Mamata Banerjee, whose pertinacious grasp over minorities has helped the TMC tide over many electoral battles.

Three consecutive terms as West Bengal Chief Minister, and yet Baharampur, the district headquarters of Murshidabad and once the seat of power of the Nawabs of Bengal, remained tantalisingly out of Mamata Banerjee’s grasp.

Doggedly defended by five-time MP and known Mamata critic Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress stronghold finally came under assault in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when the TMC chief imported cricketer Yusuf Pathan from faraway Gujarat to mount the final offensive on the party’s last citadel in Bengal.

And Baharampur fell, finally. Adhir lost a three-cornered fight against the TMC and BJP in a communally surcharged election stoked by a TMC MLA who threatened to throw BJP supporters in the Bhagirathi river, a distributary of the Ganga, “in a district with a 70% Muslim population vis-à-vis 30% Hindus.”

The MLA — none other than Humayun Kabir, the legislator from Bharatpur — is back in the news for laying the foundation of a ‘Babri-style’ masjid on December 6 at Beldanga, a small municipality on the eastern banks of the Bhagirathi.

Cash registers haven’t stopped ringing since. At last count, the 11 boxes Kabir placed to collect donations for his masjid project had raked in more than Rs 85 lakh in cash. CCTV cameras had to be installed, supposedly to maintain absolute transparency, even as currency-counting machines were pressed into service to update the ledgers. That’s aside from close to Rs 3 crore that poured in through online donations.

So much so that Kabir’s namesake, former bureaucrat and Debra MLA from TMC Humayun Kabir, has also been flooded with calls from people eager to donate.

In life, as in politics, chickens often come home to roost. Humayun Kabir is the new kid on the block in West Bengal. He is now challenging the TMC’s undisputed hold over Muslim voters in the state, projecting himself as a son of the soil and an alternative to Mamata Banerjee, whose pertinacious grasp over minorities, comprising almost 33% of the state population, has helped the TMC tide over many electoral battles.

Mindful of her minority outreach, the West Bengal chief minister has sought not to leave the BJP too much room to expand beyond a certain threshold. During her tenure, the state has been magnanimous in funding Durga Puja committees. A grand temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath at Digha, inaugurated earlier this year, is a monumental statement in the same vein.

This delicate equilibrium is now being disrupted by Humayun Kabir, the 62-year-old former state minister who once ran a cycle shop in Baharampur. Kabir rose through the ranks of Murshidabad politics, backed by Adhir Ranjan Choudhary.

He won the 2011 Assembly election from Rejinagar on a Congress ticket but later resigned to join Mamata’s party. Ironically, he was inducted into the TMC by Suvendu Adhikari, the former right-hand man of Mamata and now the leader of the Opposition from the BJP.

His communally incendiary speeches during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls may have worked to the TMC’s advantage in Muslim-dominated areas like Murshidabad and Malda.

But Babri Masjid carries a larger resonance. With elections just four months away, if polarisation of this nature spills over a larger land mass, there is always a risk of the situation spiralling out of control, especially in disparate demographics.

Sensing trouble, the Trinamool acted swiftly, suspending Kabir from the party.

The same day, at a rally in Baharampur, Mamata spoke of removing “one grain of rice that rots… otherwise the rest will spoil”, even as she urged Hindus and Muslims to live in unity.

Unfazed, Kabir has vowed to continue his efforts to construct a replica of the Babri Masjid. He is also planning to launch his own party in the third week of December, preparing to field candidates in at least 135 out of 294 seats in the Assembly elections slated for March and April next year.

Kabir claims he is in touch with AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi. Though the Hyderabad MP is yet to respond to the overtures, Mamata knows all too well the larger implications of Humayun Kabir’s political moves — with or without Owaisi. In neighbouring Bihar, just last month’s Assembly elections in the 24 Muslim-dominated border seats where the AIMIM concentrated its efforts saw the RJD and Congress reduced to single digits. Owaisi won five, while the BJP and JD(U) made the best of the division of votes by romping home in 14.

Not a situation the TMC would want to face three months from now when it seeks a fresh mandate in West Bengal.