AIUDF names ex-MP Badruddin Ajmal as candidate for Nagaon LS bypoll

way2barak, September 15: The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) named party president Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal as its candidate for the October 6 byelection to the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in central Assam.

His nomination has increased the possibility of a three-way contest in Nagaon, where Muslim voters are in the majority.

Reacting to Mr. Ajmal’s nomination, Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi indicated that he did so at the BJP’s bidding. “The AIUDF had another candidate in mind, but it did a rethink after Congress announced its candidate,” he told journalists in Guwahati.

“The BJP understood that Congress has fielded a strong candidate. They panicked and called upon their trusted political ally. Maulana Ajmalji has taken this step to help Himanta Biswa Sarma,” Mr. Gogoi said, suggesting that the AIUDF chief’s candidature was designed to help the BJP.

The Assam unit of the BJP trashed the Congress theory of a deal with the AIUDF. “In a democracy, every political party or individual has the right to contest from any seat,” a party spokesperson said.

Mr. Ajmal, an MLA from central Assam’s Binnakandi constituency and former three-time MP from Dhubri in western Assam, will face former bureaucrat Devasish Sharma of the BJP and former MLA Sibamoni Bora of Congress as his prime rivals. The Trinamool Congress has fielded Abdul Salam.