Assam United Democratic Front president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal is all set to spoil it for the Congress in Assam.
Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal is all set to spoil it for the Congress in Assam. The first casualty may be none other than heavy industries minister Santosh Mohan Dev, who has won the Silchar seat at least seven times.
Ajmal is contesting two seats, Dhubri in lower Assam and Silchar in the Barak valley. There are at least 16 candidates in Silchar, but the contest is between Dev, Ajmal and the BJP’s Kabindra Purkyastha, who was a central minister in the Vajpayee-led NDA government.
A majority of voters in Silchar are Hindu, but Muslims, who have always voted en masse for the Congress, play a pivotal role. This time, however, the 35% minority is likely to be divided because of Ajmal’s entry.
This division is expected to favour the BJP candidate to be first past the post. In fact, many Congress leaders concede privately that only a miracle can save Dev, a party veteran from the north-east.
In 2004, Samajwadi Party’s Anwar Hussain garnered one lakh of the six lakh votes polled and Dev managed to scrape through, beating Purkayastha by a narrow margin of 21,320 votes.
Ajmal, despite his flowing beard and maulana gear, is hardly the quintessential religious leader. He comes from a family that deals in itar, and was one of the richest candidates contesting the 2006 assembly election. He expanded his father’s business and went into production of a range of non-alcoholic perfumes, sold across the Muslim world at exorbitant prices. Ajmal has offices in Mumbai and Dubai. He is famous for his philanthropy and has a state-of-the-art hospital in Hojai, his home town.
Educated in a Deoband school, Ajmal is a moderate Muslim and does not want his party to be an outfit only for his community. He was one of the maulanas who issued a fatwa against terror after the Mumbai attack.
“I want development to reach every nook and corner of Assam,’’ he says. Ajmal wants the Assam accord to be implemented and all Bangladeshis who entered the state after March 31,1971, throw out.
In this, he is in agreement with both the Congress and the AGP. In fact, if the AGP had not tied up with the BJP, there was a possibility of the AUDF doing so.
There’s some consolation for the Congress, though, as the AUDF has made it clear it will not join an alliance headed by the BJP at the Centre.
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