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| Afzalur Rahman |
Dhubri, April 18: Afzalur Rahman changes parties with remarkable speed. This attribution, along with his alacrity to judge which way the wind is blowing, has made him a political survivor.
The AGP candidate for the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat has played a long political innings spanning a quarter of a century. Rahman first entered the Assam Assembly as a Janata Dal MLA in 1978.
The two-time minister has since then fought elections under the banner of the Janata Dal, the Congress-I, the Congress-S, the United Minorities Front (UMF), the Samata Party and now the AGP.
Rahman, a science graduate with distinction and a graduate in law, had first fought the elections from Jaleswar constituency. Jaleswar in Goalpara district is one of the 10 Assembly constituencies, which fall under the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat.
But his honeymoon with Janata Dal did not last long as he joined the Congress-S during the peak of the Assam movement. He retained the Assembly seat in 1983 as a Congress-S candidate. He left the party and joined the UMF later. In the 1985 elections, he returned to the Assembly as a UMF member.
Rahman joined the Congress later and retained the Jaleswar seat in the 1991 and 1996 elections. His winning spree suffered a jolt in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, which he contested as an Independent from Dhubri. He again contested from the Jaleswar Assembly seat in 2001 and lost it, fighting on a Samata Party ticket. However, he was successful in making his presence felt by denting the minority votebank of the Congress.
Rahman’s latest venture into the AGP has almost taken the party to the brink of a split. Former Rajya Sabha member Jayashree Goswami Mahanta wanted to contest from the seat on an AGP ticket. But party president Brindaban Goswami persuaded Rahman to contest the poll from the seat.
Goswami’s move was not taken lightly by two party MLAs — Ali Akbar Mian and Abdul Jabbar. The duo, self-proclaimed champions of the cause of the minorities, denounced the entry of Rahman and revolted by backing Jayashree, who is fighting as an Independent.
