3 min readKolkataMar 19, 2026 05:23 AM IST
Former TMC leader Humayun Kabir’s newly floated Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) on Wednesday announced the first list of candidates for the Bengal Assembly elections. The party plans to field candidates in 182 seats.
The party has fielded a non-Bengali Muslim candidate against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the high-profile Bhabanipur constituency.
The full list will be released on Sunday, said Humayun.
Like BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, Humayun Kabir said that he will contest from two seats Rejinagar and Naoda but will not contest from Bharatpur this time.
Addressing a press conference, Humayun said: “We are fielding candidates in 182 seats. We have announced candidates for Malda and Murshidabad. The full list will be released on Sunday around 1 pm. We will contest a few seats along with All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).”
Kabir said that he will support Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Indian Secular Front (ISF) MLA Naushad Siddiqui. He claimed that not fielding candidates would create problems and by fielding candidates and cutting into votes, he would end up helping Chowdhury and Siddiqui.
Reacting to the recent transfers of top officers in the state administration, he said, “ The Election Commission has taken the right decision. CEC Gyanesh Kumar has to ensure that the elections are conducted fairly. Those in the administration won’t have allowed free and fair elections. The Election Commission understood this, which is why it made the correct decision. Here, everyone has turned into party loyalists.”
The candidate list for AJUP :
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Among the candidates announced by the party are Bapan Ghosh from Purbasthali North in Purba Bardhaman, Yasin Haidar, former son-in-law of Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, from Kandi, and Syed Ahmed Kabir from Beldanga.
Kabir will fight from two seats in Murshidabad district, Rejinagar and Naoda, departing from his earlier political base in Bharatpur, from where he had won as a TMC candidate in the previous election.
In Malda district, the party has fielded Royal Islam from Ratua, Abdul Minaj Sheikh from Malatipur, Muskura Bibi from Vaishnavnagar, Abu Shaid from Manikchak, and Nasimul Haque from Sujapur.
Syed Khubaib Amin Saheb will contest from Bharatpur, Anupam Rohadgir from Behala East, Imtiaz Molla from Farakka, and Bijoy Sheikh from Hariharpara.
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For the high-profile Bhabanipur seat, Kabir said his party would field Poonam Begum, a non-Bengali Muslim candidate against Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
The constituency is expected to witness one of the fiercest battles of the election between Mamata and her protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP.
Kabir was suspended from the TMC in December 2025 after he announced the plan to build a Babri Masjid-style mosque in Murshidabad. Kabir, who began his political career with the Congress and rose to become an MLA from Rejinagar in 2011, joined the TMC a year later in 2012.
In 2015, he was expelled from Trinamool for six years for “anti-party activities”. He then contested as an independent candidate in 2016 elections to retain his Rejinagar seat from his predecessor Rabiul Chowdhury but lost. In between he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018 and contested from Murshidabad seat during 2019 General Elections but lost to the TMC candidate. After completing six years of expulsion, he rejoined TMC in 2021 and won as MLA from Bharatpur seat.
