Assam: Veteran Muslim leaders quit Cong to join AIUDF
In what may prove to be a major setback for the ruling Congress party in Assam, former chief minister and veteran Congress leader Anwara Taimur and former minister Abdul Muktadir Choudhury on Friday resigned from the primary membership of the ruling Congress party and joined the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
Former chief minister Ms Taimur was denied a ticket that she was hoping to get from Dalgaon.
On Thursday, her supporters gathered at Rajiv Bhawan to demand that she be nominated in place of sitting MLA Ilyas Ali, but the party refused to review its list of candidates.
Before Ms Taimur, former Congress minister Abdul Muktadir Choudhury on Friday had resigned from the primary membership and jumped ship to join the AIUDF, accusing the party of systematically eliminating the Muslim leadership.
Mr Choudhury, who was the minister-in-charge of home and industry in the late Hiteswar Saikia’s cabinet in 1983, said that despite being a veteran leader of the party, the Congress had denied him a ticket to contest from either Karimganj North or South in the ensuing Assembly polls.
“I felt humiliated and it is an injustice to the Muslim community. I am not alone. Several other senior Muslim leaders, including Sarifa Begum from Rupohihat, have been denied tickets this time. Instead of Sarifa, the Congress gave the ticket to a homemaker, Salma Jesmine, knowing well that she will lose the elections.
All these developments are part of a big conspiracy hatched by a section within the Congress,” Mr Choudhury, the AIUDF candidate said.
Mr Choudhury accused an influential junior minister in the Tarun Gogoi cabinet of hatching a conspiracy to sideline Muslim leaders, and said that the Chief Minister and Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhubaneswar Kalita have become puppets in the hands of the group led by the junior minister.
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