The All India Secular Forum (AISF) has appealed to the Congress party top brass not to field sitting MLA Abdul Khaleque in the Barpeta constituency for the Lok Sabha polls.
Hafij Ahmed, convener of All India Secular Forum’s Assam Chapter said that if Jania MLA Abdul Khaleque is fielded in Barpeta constituency, Congress will lose a huge chunk of votes.
“According to the population pattern, if a popular Muslim candidate with the ability to consolidate a considerable number of Hindu votes is filled, Congress will certainly win the seat. But we have learnt that Khaleque is eyeing the Barpeta seat and party is also considering his name for the constituency. But his popularity graph among Assamese Hindus as well as Assamese Muslim is very low,” Ahmed said.
He pointed out that it was Khaleque, who had forced the Muslims living in the riverine area of Assam to write Bangla as their mother tongue instead of Assamese in the census, which had miffed many Muslims.
“Secondly, Khaleque had favoured giving temporary shelter to “persecuted” Rohingya Muslims in Assam, a stance, which did not go down well with the people of Assam. So we hope Congress top brass would reconsider the decision and field a secular candidate in place of Khaleque,” added the AISF’s Assam convener.