AIUDF announces list for Assam, WB

The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the principal opposition party in the state on Thursday announced the first list of six candidates for Assam and eight candidates for West Bengal.

Announcing the names in presence of party candidates, AIUDF president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal told journalists that while his party would be contesting against the ruling Congress while the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) would be “the enemy” for his party.

Maulana Ajmal, the lone AIUDF representative in the parliament from lower Assam’s Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency has been re­nominated from the constituency while his brother and leader of the AIUDF Legislature Party in Assam Assembly Sirajuddin Ajmal will contest from Barpeta constituency.

The party candidates for the rest four constituencies are: Guwahati—Gopinath Das, sitting party MLA from Boko assembly constituency, Nowgong­Aditya Langthasa, Karimganj—Radheshyam Biswas and Lakhimpur­Mamun Imdadul Haque.

The AIUDF president said the party would soon announce candidates for four more constituencies of Assam—Tezpur, Silchar, Mangaldoi and Kaliabor. Congress has fielded Gaurav Gogoi, son of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi from Kaliabor constituency which is represented by Dip Gogoi, brother of the Chief Minister.

Eight AIUDF candidates for West Bengal include state president Siddiqullah Choudhury from Basirhat. The rest seven candidates are: Balurghat­Sadek Ali Sarkar, Malda(North)­Abdul Khalek, Malda(South)­Nazrul Islam, Srirampur­Pradip Ghosh, Joynagar­Taranga Mondal and Uluberia­Anisur Rahman.

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) received another jolt in the day when party’s lone sitting MP from Tezpur Lok Sabha constituency Joseph Toppo resigned after media reports that party might nominate former party president Brindaban Goswami from the constituency. Mr Goswami, however, clarified that he was not keen to contest and would like the party to renominate Mr Toppo from the constituency. Sources in AGP said that senior party leaders had been trying to convince Mr Toppo to withdraw his resignation and conveyed that the party had decided to re­nominate from the constituency.

The AGP Central Executive which met on Thursday adopted a resolution that the party had adopted the correct strategy for the Lok Sabha elections and expressed confidence that the regional party would be able to defeat both the Congress and the BJP. The executive also accused both the Congress and the BJP of hatching conspiracy to weaken regionalism but said the two parties would not succeed in their game plan against the AGP.

Mr Goswami appealed to the AGP leadership to make efforts to bring back those leaders and cadres who had deserted the regional party and joined other parties. Two senior leaders—former party President Chandra Mohan Patowary, former minister Hitendra Nath Goswami and number of middle rung leaders quit the AGP and joined the BJP recently.