Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA and a former IPS officer Humayun Kabir has said that the condition of the Muslims particularly in West Bengal was worse than even the members of Scheduled Castes.

"I not a votary of quantitative growth. Rather, I favour qualitative development of Muslims. I think the condition of the Muslims particularly those in Bengal is not as it should have been. You have to visit their areas and look at the condition they live in to realise their plight," said Kabir, a former deputy inspector general of the West Bengal Police, who joined the TMC ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections.

His statements come just amid a raging controversy over senior TMC minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim's recent controversial remarks.

When asked to comment on Hakim's remarks Kabir said, "It is the qualitative development and not quantitative growth that matters. A family comprising the parents and two children can sustain in a better manner than a family with five children. But in any case the family has to have the wherewithal and the education to sustain itself. I don't dishonor what a rickshawalla or for that matter a vegetable vendor does but for me the large majority of Muslims can have better qualitative life if they have access to education and economic resources, which is not the case at present. So, I think the craving should be for a qualitative development rather than quantitative growth."

Kabir's statements could have impact on the party's Muslim vote base which has been Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's electoral mainstay, worried insiders said.

On Kabir's anguish over the 'below par' quality of life that the Muslims of West Bengal led senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh -- who had to clean a lot of mess left by Hakim a day before -- on Tuesday offered explanations comparing the condition of the life led by the Muslims in the past and the one they lead at present. Their lives had improved quite a bit from what it used to be even a decade ago, he said.