By Tarique Anwar, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: The Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) is in deep crisis as it is failed to keep its flock together. Recently Aminul Islam, ex-minister and vice president of AUDF, and two other leaders of AUDF, resigned and joined the ruling Congress party.
The other two leaders are Rohina Waris, head of women wing, and Dadu Tye, secretary of AUDF.
In an encounter with TwoCircles.net Hafiz Rashid Choudhury, working president of AUDF, accepted that their grip on the organization and its members has weakened, and that the resignation of Aminul Islam was a big loss. He further said that Aminul Islam was previously a Congress legislator and also minister. He joined AUDF during last assembly polls hoping that AUDF will come to power and he will hold some higher post in the government but unfortunately it could not get majority and stuck to only 10 seats in the state assembly.
Asked about the most prominent reason of resignation of the leader, he said Islam was initially in Congress and had sympathy for it so he could not pay his full attention to AUDF. It was only greed that pushed him to join AUDF. But despite all these things our hold in the state is the same as before and all our 10 MLAs are still intact.
He added that he contacted Islam to know the reason of his resignation he told that he was dissatisfied with high command of the party. He claimed that the leadership of Badruddin Ajmal is not good and they were not happy with him.
“We will come with a concrete road map to ensure some seats in coming Lok sabha election so that we can have national representation. After ensuring some seats in the Parliament we will establish our units in other states also. It is in the party’s future manifesto. Presently we are focusing on Assam to gain firm foothold in here”, said Rashid responding to a question about AUDF’s plan to contest elections in other states.
Expressing his resentment on massive “anti-foreigners” drive he said that the sudden surge in the anti-foreigners campaign has led to a sense of fear among Bengali-speaking Muslims, with AASU and AJYCP activists going after daily wage earners who are not Assamese. “The victims who are being picked up by student volunteers were mostly Bengali speaking Muslims, and this trend is dangerous to say the least,” warned Hafiz Rashid Choudhury.
“We want that all illegal migrants who entered Assam after March 25, 1971, to be expelled. But caution needs to be taken to ensure that genuine Indians are not harassed.”
The AUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal said that the government must immediately upgrade the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and issue identity cards to all citizens. “This will help genuine citizens avoid unnecessary harassment.”
Talking about comeback of Aminul Islam in the Congress, Abu Saleh Nazmuddin, chairman of state Congress minority cell, worded that it is the failure of AUDF that it could not make its leader happy.
He welcomed this step and hoped prosperous future of Congress in the state.
United Muslim Front (UMF) formed AUDF with political support of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind in 2005. Previously UMF had 17 legislators in the state, some of them resigned and to save the rest its president Hafiz Rashid Choudhury, who is also a practicing lawyer ine in Assam High Court, converted it in AUDF with Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and accepted Badruddin Ajmal, state president of Jamiat, as president of AUDF. UMF was formed in 1985.