Ajmal hits back at Sarma, vows ‘miya dadagiri’ after polls

Guwahati: The political atmosphere in Assam charged up on Friday after AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal said “not Himanta’s but miya dadagari will prevail in Assam” after the assembly election.Ajmal’s response came barely a day after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma vowed to “break the backbone of miya Muslims in the next five years,” setting off a fierce war of words. Ajmal made this remark during a campaign trail in Binnakandi from where he is contesting polls this time.Addressing an election meeting at Dhakuakhana in Lakhimpur district on Friday, Sarma repeated his hardline position. “We have worked very hard for the indigenous people of the state.

Those who came from Bangladesh and encroached on Assam’s land and homes, we broke their hands and legs, politically. This time, we will break the very backbone of the Bangladeshi miyas, so that they cannot dare the Assamese people.”Ajmal responded with a sharp counterattack, accusing Sarma of targeting minorities for political gains and positioning himself as a defender of the ‘miyas’, a term commonly used for Bengali-speaking Muslims of Bangladesh-origin in Assam.

Congress moved quickly to exploit the confrontation. Assam Pradesh Congress Committee chief Gaurav Gogoi said BJP would not act against Ajmal because it needed AIUDF’s support in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.“The CM will not arrest Ajmal for his secret alliance with him. BJP govt can arrest Assamese children for writing poems, they can send Assam Police from Delhi to arrest Congress workers but silent position on Badruddin Ajmal,” Gogoi said.The political rivalry highlights the triangular nature of Assam’s political contest. BJP is projecting itself as the defender of Assamese identity, AIUDF is seeking to consolidate support among the Miya community, and Congress is trying to target both by pointing to what it calls "political contradictions".According to the 2011 Census, Muslims made up 34% of Assam’s population. Of that, Bangladesh-origin Muslims are estimated to account for around 60%, while indigenous Muslims make up the remaining 40%.Sarma has earlier said that by the time the next census figures are released in 2027, the Bangladesh-origin Muslim population could rise to around 40%.Political observers say the rhetoric is aimed more at energizing core support bases than persuading undecided voters, but the intensity of the exchange suggests communal polarization will remain a dominant feature of the campaign.For Sarma, Ajmal’s remarks reinforce a hardline political strategy that has helped BJP consolidate support among indigenous Assamese communities. For Ajmal, the response reasserts his relevance as a minority leader and keeps AIUDF at the centre of the political conversation.