A roller coaster ride awaits Ajmal!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 7: The AIUDF is going to reconstitute the central committee of the party by November. Party president Badruddin Ajmal is set to head the party as president yet again, but this time going seems to get tough for him.

According to sources in the party, the party has already started enrolment of its new members. The party is set to complete the formation of all district and mandal committees by October this year so as ensure the formation of the central committee in November this year. After the formation of the central committee, according to sources, the party is to form its various wings and morchas.

Even as Ajmal is set to head the party as president yet again, the grassroots-level workers are not happy with the functioning of other members of the party, mainly because of the Assam Assembly poll debacle. The role played by Ajmal during the last Assembly election in the State also, as often as not, comes under criticism from the ranks and files of the party. Going is likely to get tough for him this time around. This is because he, according to sources, takes decision almost single-handedly in the party. The ‘credit’ for the party winning as many as 18 seats in the State Assembly in 2011 against ten in 2006 had gone to him, and the ‘discredit’ for debacle in the 2016 Assembly election which the party had to face also went to him, applying the same logic.

The party is yet to come out of the shock defeat it had to face in the last Assembly election. After all, Ajmal was very vocal in becoming the ‘kingmaker’ in the State. He had claimed with his chest puffed up with pride that ‘no party would be able to form the government at Dispur without the support of the AIUDF’. However, in the electoral battle his party had been decimated by others.  

On August 6 and 7 this year, the party did hold meetings to review the Assembly poll debacle only to decide that the review would be done district-wise since the reasons behind the party facing defeats are not one and the same. The first phase of review by the party has already been over in Dhubri, Gongaigaon, Goalpara and Darrang districts. According to sources in the party, infighting, late announcement of party candidates, denial of party tickets to candidates with winning prospects, serious allegations being levelled against a number of party candidates, the failure of the party to take the people of the State into confidence before going on to the poll, etc., are some of the reasons identified to have scripted the defeat of the party.

A section of leaders of the party feel that the party has to be in the midst of the people, its grassroots-level workers. They are of the view that the wrongdoers in the party have to be expelled so as to cleanse the party. “If these aren’t done, the party will have to face such defeats in the days ahead,” they said.    

The second phase of review of the poll debacle is going to start from September 23. The districts to be covered in this phase are Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, gaon, Hojai, Barpeta etc.