Suspended AIUDF MLA Majharbhuiyan says party chief Ajmal asked him to abstain.
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Guwahati: After remaining in the centre of the controversy for more than a week for skipping the voting procedure of Rajya Sabha election All India United Democratic Front’s (AIUDF) Katigorah MLA Maulana Ataur Rahman Majharbhuiyan has spoken to media following his arrival from Saudi Arabia. The senior MLA who has already been suspended for an indefinite period from the party con the contrary accused AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal for the episode.
He went to Saudi Arabia to perform religious pilgrimage Umra and missed the election on February 7 thus helping the Congress winning all the three seats. The entire state went on to a stir following the incident as opposition’s candidate Haidar Hussain, a popular veteran journalist, had to lose out.
Badruddin Ajmal
Congress candidate Bhubneswar Kalita and Sanjay Singh got 32 votes each, Congress supported Bodoland People’s Party candidate Biswajit Daimary polled 29 votes. The opposition- backed candidate Haidar Hussain could garner only 26 votes.
Majharbhuiyan told reporters that it was Ajmal who had asked him to stay away from the voting procedure during the RS election. “When I was in Saudi Arabia, Ajmal had called me up. He told me that there was no need to come to cast my vote. Ajmal also said that our candidate is losing at any cost in the election,” Majharbhuiyan said at Silchar airport.
Advancing one step further, he said that it was Ajmal who had conspired to defeat opposition’s candidate Haidar Hussain after a secret meeting with the Congress in New Delhi. “I was made the scapegoat and look a villain in front of the public of the state. He had sent me a ticket on February 5 but I did not get the passport unlike Ajmal was telling the media here. He has done it willingly so that I cannot come to cast my vote,” Majharbhuiyan added.
Besides, Majharbhuiyan also accused Ajmal of ruling autocracy within the party.
On the other hand, Ajmal maintained his claim and termed Majharbhiuyan as a traitor. “I thought him to be a brother but he turned out to be a ‘baiman’. Even Allah will not forgive him for such an act of betrayal. He betrayed the entire state,” Ajmal was quoted as saying by local media during a party meeting late on Sunday in Silchar.
Meanwhile, AIUDF working president Dr Aditya Langthasa warned Majharbhuiyan for his ‘misdeed’. Langthasa also said that the party will take legal help to punish the ‘traitor’ shortly. “Now, for his safeguard, Majharbhuiyan is accusing our party chief Badruddin Ajmal which is of no use now as the people of the state have already aware of his character,” Langthasa said.
On Sunday, a section of AIUDF supporters staged protest in front of Majharbhuiyan’s residence. Besides, various organizations including students’ bodies cried foul play as five opposition votes were also got cancelled. They alleged that Congress had influenced the opposition MLAs to do so willingly.
“If senior MLAs behave like a kid, we are not going to tolerate it. They are well experienced and have cast their vote number of times in the past as well. So, we believe that they have done it willingly taking favour from Congress,” Samujjal Bhattacharyya, advisor of All Assam Students’ Union said.
Ataur Rahman Majharbhuiyan
Assam Legislative Assembly has 126 Members of which 79 belong to Congress, 12 belong to BPF, 18 belong to AIUDF, five from BJP, nine from AGP, one from Trinamool Congress and there are two Independent candidates.
This time the Rajya Sabha election witnessed several controversies and the ruling Congress had to face protests from different quarters in the beginning itself when they had declared Utter Pradesh MP Sanjay Singh’s name to contest from Assam.
Opposition and civil society slammed the ruling party for bringing Sanjay Singh from UP. They said that Sanjay Singh does not possess any knowledge of the local burning issues to serve the purpose of the public.
Some protestors even staged nude protest in front of Assam Secretariat against the ruling Congress for the chaos and bringing shame to state politics. The protestors shouted anti-government slogans. “The shameless politics and government has encouraged us to go nude. We don’t feel the shame in front of these shameless politicians who do not hesitate to sell off the priority of the people for their personal gain,” shouted a protestor.