ECI censures TMC MLA Humayun Kabir; issues notice to Bengal BJP chief
TMC MLA allegedly threatened voters and rival parties while addressing an election rally in Murshidabad earlier this month
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday censured Humayun Kabir, Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator from Bharatpur in Murshidabad for allegedly threatening voters and rival parties while addressing an election rally earlier this month.

In another development, the ECI issued a show cause notice to West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Sukanta Majumdar on Saturday for an advertisement published by the BJP in vernacular dailies on May 5, which the ruling-TMC claimed was false, unverified and misleading. It stated that the state has become a “cradle of corruption” while mounting attack on the TMC over various alleged scams.
Kabir, in a rally in Murshidabad’s Kajipara earlier this month, had reportedly said, “I will quit politics if I fail to drown you in the Bhagirathi River. I will leave Shaktipur for ever . . . I am warning BJP. If you think that you constitute the major chunk of population at Kamnagar and that gives you the right to demolish the mosque in Kajipara and the Muslim brothers would sit idle, you are mistaken.”
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a BJP rally at Bardhaman – Durgapur on May 3, had slammed the TMC legislator for his controversial comments.
The BJP lodged a complaint with the poll panel on May 2. The next day Modi attacked the TMC over alleged appeasement politics.
“I saw on TV a TMC MLA threatening Hindus that in two hours he would drown them in the River Bhagirathi. What type of language and political culture is this?” Modi had said while adding that that Hindus have been relegated in the state into second class citizens in TMC’s regime.
The poll panel had issued a show cause notice to Kabir to which he replied on May 10 saying that his comments were taken in isolation to make it seem like a threat.
The poll panel was, however, convinced that TMC MLA violated the MCC and strongly condemned the statement while censuring him on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Majumdar has been asked to show cause by 5pm on May 21 as to why the advertisement shouldn’t be treated as a violation of the MCC and action be taken against him.
