JUP leader Humayun Kabir explores tie-up with CPI(M), ISF for Bengal polls

A meeting on Wednesday between West Bengal Communist Party of India (Marxist) secretary Md. Salim and suspended Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir, who had recently launched the Janata Unnayan Party (JUP), has sparked speculation about an understanding between the two political groupings ahead of the 2026 Assembly election.

Mr. Salim said the meeting was to “understand (Mr. Kabir’s) mind”.

Mr. Kabir, on the other hand, said he wants an electoral understanding with the CPI(M) and Indian Secular Front (ISF) to be settled by February 15. In the 2021 election, the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress had entered into an electoral alliance with ISF. However, the alliance failed to make much of an impact in the last Assembly polls, winning only one Assembly seat in Bhangar, which is represented by ISF MLA Nawsad Siddique.

Mr. Kabir added that he has asked Mr. Salim to speak to ISF on his behalf. On Friday, Mr, Kabir said he spoke to Abbas Siddique, the force behind ISF. He has also called a public meeting in Murshidabad on Saturday, as a “show of strength”.

The meeting between the CPI(M) State Secretary and the JUP leader who has given a call to set up a mosque modelled on Badri Masjid has brought some embarrassment to the party. But there are people in the party who say that the primary goal should be to defeat the Trinamool Congress.

Only ten days ago, ISF MLA Nawshad Siddique said that it was essential to forge an alliance with the Congress and Left Front at the earliest to defeat the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Assembly polls. “To defeat the Trinamool Congress and the BJP. To ensure that they can be easily defeated. We need to form an alliance within a month with Left parties and Congress,” the ISF leader had said.

The electoral politics in the State has been bipolar with the Trinamool and the BJP competing against each other. The Left parties and the Congress party have provided a third alternative to the electorate, but they have not tasted much electoral success. The meeting between two key leaders of the Opposition front signals fresh alignment ahead of the polls.