Muslims flays congress government in asom

United Minority Front (UMF) chairman H R A Chowdhury criticised the Cong ress Government in the State for its failure to ensure socio-economic development of the religious and linguistic minorities.Claiming that Congress's minority cell has asked for 38 assembly seats for religious minorities of a total of 126 for the next assembly elections, Mr. Chowdhury observed that this demand was based on its claim that in those constituencies the Muslim population was more than 45 per cent.However, Mr. Chowdhury maintained that it was not the numbers, but the attitude of the government, which wasmore important for the benefit of the minority community.According to the UMF chairman, despite having about 20 MLAs in the Congress party, the state government had done almost nothing for the benefit of the minorities.Alleging that instead of upgrading the quality of life of the minorities, the Congress Government in the State was ''using the Illegal Migrants Determination Tribunal (IMDT) Act as a tool to pursue its vote bank politics,'' the UMF chairman said despite enjoying the support of about 20 MLAs, the State Government had done almost nothing for the benefit of the minorities. He further alleged that while the Congress used the minority for its vote-bank politics, the BJP was against the minority in pursuance of its Hindutva policy.Mr. Chowdhury was of the view that the AGP should take the lead to combine all ''anti-Congress and anti-BJP secular and democratic forces'' in the state to emerge as a viable alternative before the next assemblly polls.