Politics

The Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) leader Badruddin Ajmal had declared that his party would participate in the forthcoming general elections in a big way from several constituencies with conce-ntration of voiceless people belonging to the minority sections, and SCs and STs. Mr. Ajmal who was addressing a select group of intellectuals and social activists in Bangalore in the last week of February said, the emergence of AUDF in Assam in a big way has paved the ground for weaker sections plumping the political groups that represent their interests.

The AUDF won 10 of the 126 seats in Assam Assembly in 2006 elections with 8.6 per cent voteshare. Ajmal said, the AUDF candidates were the main losers (second major vote gainers) on 12 seats and were placed third on 16 1t seats. He said the dependence on Indian National Congress for nearly 58 years after independence delivered nothing to the minorities and SCs and STs in the backward state of Assam. Areas dominated by these communities were denied access by pucca roads, power, schools and fair price shops. However, presence of AUDF in the Opposition has struck fear in the hearts of the current Congress dispensation in the state which has initiated the development work in those areas now.

Mr. Ajmal is a business tycoon and heads the Ajmal Group of industries which manufactures Ajmal brand perfumes with a turnover running into crores of rupees. The perfumes register highest sales in the gulf markets. He also heads the Markazul Maarif in Mumbai where madrassa graduates are trained in English and other modern skills like computers. He also heads the Jamiatul Ulema e Hind in Assam.

Ajmal said two of the 10 AUDF Assembly members in Assam were Hindus and the party welcomed all social and religious groups in its fold. He said the AUDF did not espouse any partisan agenda but was committed to development of underprivileged sections and bringing them into the mainstream. He said the Congress and the BJP leadership came from upper and privileged castes but were able to hoodwink people belonging to communities other than the upper castes. Now their game is up and the underdogs were waking up and demanding their share in the development cake. He said the underdogs in Assam were left to fend for themselves where their embankments were eroded and Brahmaputra perennially drowned their penury-stricken villages. The Congress manifesto promised them relief and rehabilitation but all those funds ultimately ended up in their personal and party coffers.

He said all underprivileged sections voted for the AUDF members en masse. Muslim, tribal and Dalit women came out to vote in these constituencies in unprecedented numbers. The Congress ran a campaign to counter the influence of the AUDF and the Jamiatul Ulema in Assam and told the upper castes that it was Congress alone which could keep the minorities and Dalits poor. Some of them went to the people with Sachar Committee report in hand to upper caste dominated constituencies and showed the report to them in proof of certified proof of poverty of Muslims and told them that ‘RSS and BJP were no match to Congress when it comes to showing a place to Muslims’. He said while AUDF meetings drew lakhs, Sonia Gandhi’s meetings had less than 10,000 persons.
Mr. Ajmal said AUDF could not be accused as a Muslim party which the Congress to trying to prove in Assam. The AUDF has gained the confidence of several sections of Assam society and had to cope with 73 aspirants of its tickets in 2006 Assembly elections. He said even after the elections, the Congress tried to split the AUDF and break the party with lures of ministership and his brother Sirajuddin Ajmal (who was elected MLA from Jamunamukh (a seat vacated by Badruddin Ajmal who won from two seats) was offered deputy chief ministership but could not succeed. He said now the Congress ministry was trying to focus on development works in minority and Dalit area in order to woo the underprivileged classes who were deprived by them all these years.

He said the situation was ripe for AUDF’s foray into other states, particularly neighbouring West Bengal where Marxists had kept the Dalits, STs and the minorities in a perpetually deprived state. He said the AUDF would field at least two candidates in West Bengal and four candidates in Assam in the forthcoming elections.

Ajmal said 60 years were enough for the deprived sections to come out of the awe of the Congress and the BJP who have merely hoodwinked the electorate and cornered all the State’s largesse for 15 per cent upper caste population and reduced the masses to emaciated wrecks. He said it was time for all the deprived sections to come together and fight for share in the power. Elections should be fought on issues pertaining to livelihood. Honest persons should be fielded and once into the house, the legislators should safeguard themselves from money power of the major parties and should hold their flock together. Value based politics should be the motto, he added.