 "Badruddin Ajmal")
Badruddin Ajmal is the founder and chief of one of Assam’s youngest political parties – All India United Democratic Fund (AIUDF). 66-year-old Ajmal shot to fame as his party bagged 10 seats during their debut 2006 assembly polls, six months after the birth of the party. During the 2011 assembly polls, AIUDF bagged 18 seat, becoming the principal opposition party in the state.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, out of the 14 parliamentary seats, the Congress bagged three, the BJP bagged seven, and Ajmal’s party emerged as Congress’ equal.
While AIUDF has an increasing hold on Muslims within the state, Ajmal takes pride in the ‘all-embracing approach’ of the party, which has made it popular in the state. “We have non-Muslim MLAs and our working president is a tribal. People go by my appearance – beard and skull cap -- to pass judgement, but few parties are as broad-based and secular as ours,” news reports quote Ajmal as saying.
Muslims have drifted towards the AIUDF since Ajmal floated it against the backdrop of the Supreme Court scrapping the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act after describing Bangladeshi influx as a "silent external aggression" of Assam.
For the 2016 assembly polls Ajmal has declared that his party is anti-Congress and anti-BJP, and he would not be willing to form an alliance with either one.
