By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: On the arrival of Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, the national president of the United Democratic Front (UDF), to Mumbai on June 6 the Maharashtra UDF, some other local organizations and mumbaikars extended a warm welcome to him.
A huge procession comprising hundreds of bikes and cars from Santacruz Domestic Airport to Crawford Market, a distance of nearly 30 km, wound its way on the road to welcome the newly elected MP from Assam, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal. People standing by the roadside waved and cheered and party workers welcomed him at different places as the rally led by Ajmal meandered through Bandra, Mahim, Vadala Road, Matunga, Byculla and Muhammad Ali Road before reaching Musafirkhana Chowk (near Crawford Market) where locals had staged a program to welcome him.
Farid Khan, general secretary, Mumbai Aman Committee, Abdul Hameed Dayyan, Musafirkhana Trust and the local people welcomed Maulana amidst applause. ‘We won’t take rest until Maharashtra is conquered,’ resolved the UDF Maharashtra Pradesh president Tarun Rathi supported by Farooq Mithaiwala, Maharashtra UDF vice president, S M Khan, UDF Mumbai Youth president, Yunus Maniyar, Maharashtra UDF convener and Dr. Azimuddin, general secretary Maharashtra UDF.
‘UDF is the party of the poor, widows, orphans and dehumanized people. It is not a Muslim League rather it welcomes all irrespective of caste and religion, all those who want to join it. In our first election (Assam 2006 assembly elections) the candidates we fielded were both Muslims and non-Muslims,’ said Badruddin Ajmal in his address to the gathering adding, ‘by the grace of Allah ‘I am the candidate to achieve the highest margin victory in the North East India. I hope by 2011 UDF will emerge as the largest party of Assam and it will be the king maker.’
The party is all set to contest the coming Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections to be held by the end of the year. ‘We know that in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections the Muslim community had been ignored in Maharashtra, and hence we have decided to contest the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha Elections,’ declared Ajmal in a press conference.
That the so-called Congress and Nationalist Congress Party together gave tickets to only two Muslims in the 15th Lok Sabha elections (unfortunately both of them lost) and it was ‘unfair representation’ and ‘gross injustice’ to the Muslims according to Ajmal.
Whether or not UDF will enter into alliance with any party for the assembly elections remains to be decided. ‘It is too early to say anything in this regard. When the time comes, our management will take decision,’ told Ajmal. The UDF had contested the Lok Sabha elections in the state without alliance with any party.
The UDF was formed months before the 2006 assembly elections in Assam and had won 10 assembly seats with 9.07% vote share. Later in the rural elections in 2008 it had increased its vote share to 14.54% and won 48 Zilla Parishad seats.
Extending its scope in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections the UDF fielded candidates in Assam, Maharashtra and Bengal and made an impressive start by sending one candidate Badruddin Ajmal from Dhubri constituency of Assam to the Parliament in its first attempt. Now, the UDF has become the third major party in Assam, ahead of Assam Gana Parishad (AGP), the party which completed its five-year term twice in the state.
Ajmal told media persons that party workers intended to nationalize United Democratic Front. He indicated that in the assembly elections UDF will field candidates in Bihar and Jharkhand too.