The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen on Friday announced that it is ending its alliance with former West Bengal minister Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan Party for the upcoming Assembly elections after claims he purportedly made in a widely shared video.
The Trinamool Congress had on Thursday posted a video on social media that purportedly shows Kabir claiming that he and the Bharatiya Janata Party had agreed on a Rs 1,000 crore-deal to help topple the Mamata Banerjee government in the state and mislead the Muslim community.
Kabir on Thursday rejected the allegations, claiming that the video was an artificial intelligence-generated deepfake and part of a political smear campaign.
Commenting on the allegations, BJP leader and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar told ANI that “we don’t know anything about the video”. “It is Humayun Kabir’s video and it is he who will tell what it is and what it isn’t,” he said.
The BJP has “no reason to worry about” Kabir, he told the news agency, adding that “there is a direct fight between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP”.
“What Humayun Kabir will do is Humayun Kabir’s matter...” Majumdar added.
On Friday, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM said that it “cannot associate with any statements where integrity of Muslims is brought into question”.
AIMIM stated on social media that it was withdrawing from the alliance following Kabir’s “revelations”, adding that it would not have any tie-up with any party in the state.
On April 1, Owaisi and Kabir had held a joint rally in Murshidabad where they indicated that their alliance would continue beyond the Assembly polls into the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, The Indian Express reported.
In his social media post denying the allegations, Kabir said on Thursday that he had not been in touch with BJP leaders since 2019. He challenged Trinamool Congress leaders who made the allegations to provide evidence and threatened to file defamation cases.
Kabir asked: “Is the Prime Minister of India really such a weak figure that he would hand over Rs 1,000 crore to Humayun Kabir? Do you take everyone for a fool?”
The Trinamool Congress had suspended Kabir in December after he claimed that he would “build a Babri Masjid” in Murshidabad district.
He later formed his own political party ahead of the polls.
The Assembly elections in the state will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 4.
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