Suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Humayun Kabir is receiving funds from all quarters, including individuals from various states, to make the Babri Masjid dream a reality in Murshidabad district. Since the foundation stone was laid on the 33rd anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, almost ₹5 crore has been raised.
An individual donor had promised ₹1 crore, which Kabir says he is yet to receive. He is hopeful of receiving more funds, including from overseas, once there are banking provisions in place by the West Bengal Islamic Foundation of India (WBIFI) to receive foreign funding. “We are getting calls from overseas to donate funds, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and England,” said an extremely confident Kabir. The former TMC MLA is not just confident of his Babri Majid dream, but also of his new political innings after the foundation after the huge show of support he received during the foundation laying event.
Every evening, trunks of money collected for the day, accumulated from donation boxes, are counted by committee members of the WBIFI, which is in charge of building the Babri Masjid on 23 bighas of land. On Thursday itself, ₹23,01,495 was collected along with a gold ring, a gold nose ring and gold earrings.
Kabir has no plans to quit, although he has been suspended by the party. In fact, he is confident of playing a major role in Bengal politics. “I will be the kingmaker after the elections. No one can form a government without me,” said Kabir, who will be at the West Bengal assembly on December 17, but has no plan to resign. “Let me get done with this month, I will think in January,” clarified Kabir.
He is set to launch his new party on December 22, although the name of which he has not yet been revealed. Kabir was hopeful of an alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi’s party, AIMIM, which did not work out. There are still chances of a seat-sharing formula that the Bharatpur MLA wants to work out with the Congress and Left Front in Murshidabad district, which he says he will announce once his party is formed.
The TMC has distanced itself from Kabir’s Babri Masjid agenda, which is not in tandem with the party’s ideology of inclusive politics. The Muslim community comprises almost 30 per cent electorate in West Bengal, and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has shown that the Hindu minority community, like the Matuas, forms 17 per cent in the state. The Hindu minority votes are divided between the BJP and TMC. On the day the Babri Masjid foundation stone was laid in Murshidabad district, TMC held the ‘Samhiti Diwas’ or Unity Day, sending out a strong message that the party stand for communal harmony.
TMC expelled Kabir from the party for a second time, days before the stone-laying ceremony at Murshidabad. Kabir, who joined the TMC from the Congress, served as a junior cabinet minister in the first term of the ruling government before he was expelled for six years in 2015 for his anti-party activities. He then joined the BJP in 2018 but contested and lost to the TMC in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Kabir rejoined the TMC after the 6-year expulsion term was completed.
