Muslim groups in Assam vow to vote out Congress

Web posted at: 10/4/2005 8:56:9
Source ::: IANS

Badruddeen Ajmal, Jamiat Ulama-E-Hind President, being felicitated by his supporters after being elected President of the newly floated party United Democratic Front by more than 20 minority organisations of Assam, in Guwahati, yesterday.

Guwahati: Muslim groups in Assam Monday formed a new political party with a pledge to oust the ruling Congress from power in the upcoming assembly elections.

At least 12 prominent Muslim organisations, led by the Assam chapter of Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, formed the United Democratic Front (UDF) at a political convention in Assam's main city Guwahati.

"We shall see to it that the Congress party and its Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi are taught a lesson during the elections. We shall give the Congress a run for its money in the polls," Maulana Arshad Madani, vice president of All India Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, told the convention.

Muslims in Assam, who account for about 30 percent of the state's 26 million people, have for decades been at the centre stage of electoral politics as the community holds the key in at least 40 of the 126 assembly constituencies.

The Muslims and Bengali speaking linguistic minority voters in Assam have traditionally been Congress supporters.

"It is indeed a sad day for us as we are speaking against the Congress party with whom we share a strong bond for more than a century now. But we cannot remain silent as the Congress government led by Gogoi is working against the interests of the minorities," Madani said.

The decision to form a political party by the minority groups came in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in July to repeal the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, which was applicable only in Assam.

The 22-year-old act was replaced with the Foreigners Act of 1946.

"We shall mobilise all our resources throughout the state to ensure the defeat of the Congress," Badruddin Azmal, president of the UDF, said.

"The Congress betrayed the interests of the minorities by not defending the IMDT act in the Supreme Court the way it should have been done."

Assam goes to the polls early next year.

The UDF is yet to announce if it would forge an electoral alliance with other political parties.

"We are having negotiations with secular parties although nothing is finalised as yet," UDF leader Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury said.

According to indications, the UDF might come to some electoral understanding with the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).

The formation of the UDF could alter political equations in Assam ahead of the elections, with the Congress likely to be at the receiving end.

Chief Minister Gogoi recently said his party would win the polls without the support of the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, whose leaders had campaigned for the Congress in past elections.