Who is Maulana Badruddin Ajmal and what is All India United Democratic Front?

NEW DELHI: The All India United Democratic Front, also known as AIUDF, was founded by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal in October 2005. The party was initially known as Assam United Democratic Front or AUDF before it was relaunched as a national party in February 2009, under the leadership of Badruddin Ajmal. Founded in 2005 by Ajmal after he fell out with the then chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the AIUDF, which espouses the cause of the minorities, has come a long way in past 13 years. In five years, the party saw its MLA strength rise from 10 in 2006 to 18 in 2011, going on to replace the AGP as the principal Opposition in the Assembly. Its MP strength in Assam also rose from one in 2009 to three in 2014, the same as that of the then ruling Congress. During Assam Assembly elections campaign in 2016, Ajmal had hoped he would play the kingmaker and his party would increase its tally to 30+. But after the results were declared, they dashed the dreams of the man who had fancied himself as the kingmaker. Ajmal lost from South Salmara to arch-rival Wazed Ali Choudhury of the Congress by over 14,000 votes. The AIUDF's tally also dipped to 13 seats from 18 in the 2011 Assembly elections. Badruddin Ajmal and his brother Sirajuddin Ajmal, who is a member of parliament from Assam's Barpeta, are the two leading lights of the AIUDF. Badruddin Ajmal was born to Ajmal Ali and Mariamunessa on February 12, 1950 in Gopal Nagar village of Assam's Nagaon district. He married Rezwana Ajmal in in 1979 and the couple has six sons and a daughter. He is serving his second term in the Parliament representing Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency, the seat that launched him to the Lower House in 2009. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Assam in 2006 but resigned after he won Lok Sabha elections from Dhubri with a huge margin defeating his nearest Congress rival and sitting member Anowar Hussain. Badruddin is not just a political leader but also a 'holy man'. He has earned the equivalent of a masters in Arabic language and theology from the Darul Uloom Deoband Islamic School. His family owns almost the whole of the Hojai town in Nowgaon district. He has the largest agar plantation in India and runs a Rs.2,000 crore perfume business. He runs the Haji Abdul Majid Memorial Hospital, Asia's largest rural charitable hospital and also owns what is arguably Asia's richest NGO - Markaaj-ul-Maaris. That such a man can easily match the financial powers of mainstream political parties is beyond doubt. But he has also been helped by the changing demographic character of Assam. While Muslims constituted 30.9 percent of the population in 2001, their share jumped to 34.2 percent in 2011. In 2001, only six districts had a Muslim majority. In 2011, Muslims constituted the majority in nine districts. Badruddin, however, leaves no stone unturned to prove that his party has its base among all sections of the people. The claim is not without reason. The working president of his party is Aditya Langthsa, a Dimasa tribal. Moreover, in the 2014 parliamentary elections, a prominent Hindu named Radheshyam Biswas had won from the Karimgunj constituency on the AIUDF ticket. There is, however, no doubt that the AIUDF has spread its tentacles far and wide in Assam. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, its only success was in the Dhubri constituency but in 2014 it bagged three Lok Sabha seats - Dhubri, Barpeta and Karimgunj. In the 2006 assembly elections, the AIUDF won 10 seats but in the assembly poll of 2011 the figure jumped to 18. Similarly, in the 2011 assembly polls, the AIUDF's vote share was 12.6 percent, increasing to 15 percent in 2014. (With inputs from IANS)