AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)leader Asaduddin Owaisi has announced that his party will contest the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections in alliance with Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP).
The announcement assumes significance as it indicates a new political grouping of minority forces in West Bengal. Mr. Kabir, a former Trinamool Congress MLA has gained prominence in central Bengal particularly Murshidabad district over his calls to construct a mosque styled on the lines of Babri Masjid. He had floated his outfit AJUP in December 2025, after being expelled from Trinamool Congress.
Mr. Owaisi made the announcement of going with AJUP on Sunday (March 22, 2026) in Hyderabad. He went on to accuse West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of doing injustice to Muslims in the state on several counts.
On Sunday (March 22), Mr. Kabir held a press conference in Murshidabad where he announced names of candidates contesting on 149 seats, including candidates for high-profile Bhabanipur and Nandigram constituencies. At Bhabanipur AJUP has fielded Poonam Begum, while Shahidul Haque is the party candidate from Nandigram
The AJUP president will be contesting from two constituencies in Murshidabad—Rejinagar and Naoda. Peerzada Khoayeb Amin has been fielded from the Bharatpur constituency vacated by Humayun Kabir. Yasir Haider, the former son-in-law of state minister and Trinamool leader and Minister Firhad Hakim, has been fielded from the Raninagar constituency.
Mr. Kabir has held talks with Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Indian Secular Front on seat sharing in the upcoming polls, but could not reach a consensus. The CPI(M) led Left front has allied with ISF and other left parties like CPI(Marxist- Leninist) Liberation for the upcoming polls. The Congress party has decided to go alone in the elections.
These electoral understandings and alliance are significant as they pose a danger for Trinamool Congress for splitting the party Muslim vote bank that has firmly supported it since 2011 assembly polls. Mr. Kabir said that maintaining law and order and communal harmony in the state are the main issues that his party is using in the elections.
In 2021 Assembly polls the AIMIM tried to test political waters in West Bengal by warming up to ISF but could not forge any agreement and the ISF went with Left Front and Congress. Language remains a challenge for AIMIM which is considered a party of Urdu speaking Muslims, whereas most of the 27 % Muslim electorate in West Bengal has Bengali as their mother tongue.
Published – March 23, 2026 07:59 am IST
