Owaisi’s AIMIM enters Bengal poll fray, says tied up with Humayun Kabir’s party

Kabir’s AJUP names 153 candidates, also for Bhabanipur and Nandigram.

Owaisi announces tie-up with Humayun Kabir’s party for Bengal election

Owaisi accused Mamata Banerjee of doing injustice to Muslims.

3 min readHyderabad, KolkataMar 23, 2026 04:27 AM IST First published on: Mar 23, 2026 at 04:27 AM IST

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday announced to contest the West Bengal elections in alliance with Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP).

“As part of the alliance, AIMIM leaders will contest in West Bengal elections,” Owaisi said while addressing a gathering at the party headquarters in Hyderabad, adding that efforts are on to strengthen the AIMIM across the country.

He went on to accuse West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of doing injustice to Muslims in the state by cancelling OBC certificates of at least five lakh community members. “There are several other stories and instances of injustice, despite these people getting votes in the name of secularism,” he said. “When the Majlis speaks about participation and participative democracy, they are troubled, despite calling themselves secular parties,” Owaisi said.

In the Malda panchayat election, the AIMIM secured 60,000 votes, which gave the Majlis hope to secure five-six Assembly seats.

Owaisi, however, did not mention the number of Assembly seats his party would contest in alliance with Kabir’s AUJP.

Earlier in the day, Kabir held a press conference in Murshidabad where he announced 153 candidates, including the nominees for both high-profile Bhabanipur and Nandigram constituencies.

In the Bhabanipur Assembly seat in south Kolkata, Kabir has fielded local resident Poonam Begum to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The BJP has already challenged the TMC supremo on her home turf by fielding Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

“I have faith in myself and trust in Allah. I will give my 100%,” Poonam Begum said on Sunday after her candidature was announced.

On Adhikari’s home turf of Nandigram, the AJUP has fielded Shahidul Haque. He will join TMC’s Pabitra Kar to take on Adhikari, who in the last Assembly polls in 2021 had defeated Mamata Banerjee by a narrow margin.

In an interesting turn of events, the AJUP has also named its candidate for the Bhangar Assembly seat from where ISF chief Naushad Siddiqui is set to recontest again. Kabir has fielded Seema Bhattacharya from Bhangar, where the TMC has fielded Saikat Molla, while Naushad Siddiqui is almost certain to contest again. There were earlier reports of ISF and AJUP in talks to form a pre-poll alliance with the Left Front. On Saturday, the ISF had said that it would contest 33 seats in the upcoming elections, including four Assembly constituencies where seat-sharing talks with the Left Front were yet to reach a consensus.

Last Wednesday, Humayun had said that his party would contest 182 of the total 294 seats in the state and announced candidates for the Assembly seats in Malda and Murshidabad districts. He said that he will be contesting from two constituencies in Murshidabad—Rejinagar and Naoda.

TMC minister Firhad Hakim’s former son-in-law Yasir Haider will contest on the AUJP ticket from Kandi.

The party said the remaining candidates will be declared on March 25. Humayun also stated that the party’s election manifesto will be released on March 28 with focus on “healthcare, rising prices, deterioration of law and order in the state, and communal harmony”.