ISF says no alliance talks held with Humayun Kabir for Bengal elections
Kolkata: Indian Secular Front (ISF) chairman Navsad Siddiqui on Sunday clarified that there have been no talks regarding an electoral alliance with suspended Trinamool Congress leader Humayun Kabir’s newly formed Janata Unnayan Party (JUP).
These comments come a day after Kabir said he wanted to form an electoral alliance with the ISF for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.
Siddiqui, meanwhile, visited the CPI(M) headquarters in Kolkata on Saturday and held talks with Left Front leaders who were in an electoral alliance with the ISF during the 2021 state assembly elections.
Speaking to the media, Siddiqui said, “No one has contacted us with any such proposal. No one from our state committee has had any such conversation with any leader. If anyone had spoken to a member of our party’s state leadership verbally about this, they would have informed me. Therefore, I am unaware of any news that Kabir’s party is seeking an alliance with us in the assembly elections.”
On Saturday, Kabir said, “In the future of Bengal’s politics, I and the ISF are coming together. If AIMIM joins, they are welcome.”
Meanwhile, Siddiqui has once again begun groundwork for the upcoming assembly elections and has sent email letters to Left Front Chairman Biman Basu and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President Subhankar Sarkar, seeking to discuss a possible electoral alliance this time as well.
While the Congress leadership at Bidhan Bhavan did not respond, Siddiqui received positive signals from Left leaders and went to the Alimuddin Street office in central Kolkata.
He spoke with Biman Basu, as well as CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim and senior leader Srideep Bhattacharya.
According to Siddiqui, “Talks on the alliance have just begun. We want to unite anti-BJP and anti-Trinamool forces. We discussed how to make the entire process run smoothly. The ISF is also ready to make sacrifices for the alliance.” In the 2021 assembly elections in Bengal, the Left Front, Congress, and ISF formed an electoral alliance, the United Front. The Left and Congress did not win a single seat, while the ISF won only one assembly seat. Siddiqui was the only candidate to win the election from the Bhangar assembly seat.
However, this alliance broke down in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when the parties decided to contest separately.
