Guwahati: Badruddin Ajmal had projected himself as the messiah of Muslims in Assam and his party, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the saviour. But the effect seems to be on the wane. The saffron sweep in Assam has nearly wiped out the AIUDF, which represented Muslim minorities in lower Assam and Barak Valley for the past two decades.From 16 seats in 2021, the AIUDF has been reduced to just two of the 29 it contested, with perfume baron Ajmal winning Binnakandi, while Mazibur Rahman retaining Dalgaon.The Congress, which was in alliance with AIUDF in 2021, benefitted from the party’s loss. Even though voter turnout crossed 90% in Muslim-majority assembly constituencies of lower Assam, it did not accrue into votes for the 70-year-old Ajmal’s party.Besides the Congress factor, political analyst Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury felt Ajmal’s failure to project faces beyond the family did not augur well for the party.“Instead of fighting the election at such an old age and amid health issues, Ajmal could have projected someone else. This could have also given a message to the public that AIUDF is a public party. A man who cannot walk properly became a candidate. These are the things that give a better indication that actually they want to keep it (party) confined to their own family,” Choudhury pointed out.He also felt that AIUDF was not seen to be serious in safeguarding Muslims who had been left out of the NRC or were in a dilemma over the citizenship issue. AIUDF became a party of only the Ajmal family, Choudhury alleged.While Ajmal was the strongest candidate in the newly created Binnakandi seat in central Assam and won comfortably, there’s a feeling that AIUDF’s victory in the Muslim-dominated Dalgaon seat was helped by a split in opposition votes as well as Rahman’s own efforts.Rahman said this was not an election in which AIUDF alone lost, but one in which the entire opposition was defeated.“We thought Gaurav Gogoi will become the CM, but he lost. It’s painful that he lost,” said Rahman, who attributed his win to development work in his constituency. “I worked to build embankments, gave land pattas and people voted for me,” he pointed out.The party is planning to hold an introspection meeting on May 6 which may be attended by Ajmal. After his victory, Ajmal took to social media to thank the people. “Will always remain grateful to the people. This victory belongs to the people,” Ajmal wrote.AIUDF sources blamed wrong selection of candidates as one of the reasons for the debacle.“AIUDF’s downfall may be due to wrong candidate selection in a few seats and confrontation with the Congress, unlike in the last election,” said an AIUDF leader. With no representation in Parliament and having won only two seats in this election, is it the beginning of the end for Assam’s only Muslim-focused party? Only time will tell.
