Bengali-speaking Assamese Muslim, businessman, politician, theologian, free cannon: The various identities of Badruddin Ajmal

With 9.3 per cent vote share and 16 MLAs within the 126 member state meeting, Ajmal’s get together, which has typically claimed to champion the ‘reason behind Muslims’ in Assam, is a serious participant within the state’s political panorama.

Ajmal was born in January 1950 to prosperous fragrance businessman and founding father of Ajmal Perfumes, Haji Ajmal Ali. A businessman and Islamic theologian, Ajmal’s political get together quickly rose to recognition in Assam and he received from two Meeting constituencies – South Salmars and Jamunamukh in Nagaon district within the 2006 state Meeting elections. Ajmal continued because the MLA of South Salmars until 2009, when he defeated his closest contender and Congress candidate Anwar Hussain from Dhubri parliamentary constituency to change into an MP within the Lok Sabha for the primary time.

Since then, Ajmal has represented the Dhubri seat in Parliament thrice, whereas his get together, AIUDF received 18 seats within the 2011 Meeting election and emerged because the then single-largest opposition get together in opposition to the Congress-led authorities.

Quick ahead to 2016. AIUDF’s Meeting tally got here all the way down to 13 (however rose to 16 within the 2021 Meeting elections). Whereas the figures of total votes solid in favour of the get together have come down, the get together’s success fee has improved lately, after Ajmal’s get together received 16 seats, having contested from solely 20, with a 80 per cent success fee, albeit in a ‘mahajot’ or grand alliance with its once-adversary the Congress, to tackle the BJP.

The politician who likes to put on conventional apparel, has been featured in 2015-16 in an inventory of the World’s 500 most influential Muslims, revealed by Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Research Centre. Other than his fragrance enterprise, he runs the Markarul Maarif Schooling and Analysis Centre in Mumbai, and has arrange Mariyam Ajmal Ladies’s School of Science and Expertise in Assam.

His property and circumstances have each jumped exponentially over time. From Rs 54.82 crore property declared within the 2016 Assam Meeting election and a single case in opposition to him, Ajmal had Rs. 78.80 crores, together with liabilities of over Rs 1 crore, and 7 felony circumstances pending in opposition to him as on 2019, when he final submitted particulars in his Parliamentary election affidavit.

These circumstances embody costs associated to selling enmity between totally different teams on grounds of faith, race, hometown, residence, language, and so forth., and doing acts prejudicial to upkeep of concord, costs of felony intimidation, false statements upon oath or affirmation to public servant or anybody authorised to manage oath or affirmation, dishonest and dishonesty inducing supply of property, costs of deliberate and malicious acts supposed to outrage non secular emotions of any class by insulting non secular beliefs, and so forth., amongst others.

He has been accused of creating inflammatory feedback by a number of people and organisations, together with the All Assam College students Union (AASU), Congress, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and so forth. at totally different instances. He has additionally been accused of toeing the BJP line to make sure electoral positive factors for the saffron get together within the ongoing Gujarat Meeting elections, whereas BJP itself has typically criticised him for his allegedly communal and inflammatory stands.

The most recent controversy comes after he stated in an interview, in an indirect reference to Hindus, that they need to marry early like Muslims and sire kids. He was quoted within the media as saying, “They (Hindus) ought to comply with Muslims and get their kids married at an younger age. Get the boys married at 20-22 and the women at 18-20 and see what number of kids are born.”

His feedback confronted sharp criticism from BJP MLA Diganta Kalita, who stated Indians didn’t have to study from ‘Bangladeshis’, indicating that Ajmal was the latter, and suggested him to go to Bangladesh. Congress chief Debabrata Saikia later filed a criticism in opposition to him, accusing him of focusing on the Hindu neighborhood and claiming that his feedback had induced disharmony or enmity in the direction of Hindus, particularly Hindu girls of India.

The Assam Jatiya Parishad has additionally filed a criticism in opposition to Ajmal, whereas the Trinamool Congress has burnt his effigy and filed a criticism with the police.

Ajmal later retracted his feedback and stated he was ‘ashamed’ of the controversy his feedback had sparked, at the same time as he maintained that these feedback had been twisted, and that he really hadn’t focused Hindus.