Will the perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal smell the success?
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Synopsis
Ajmal, the perfume baron who says he is no longer interested in business, has assumed centrestage in Assam elections.
The man from Hojai in Assam wears many hats — founder of AIUDF, three-time MP and Islamic spiritual healer — but outside these spheres, he is a perfume mogul.
Who is Badruddin?”
Fifteen years ago, former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi pointedly asked that question — and kept asking it. The year was 2006. A newly formed All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) mounted a massive election campaign, with its founder Maulana Badruddin Ajmal pumping in cash in minority-dominated pockets of lower and middle Assam. Gogoi was alerted by his party leaders that it was an attack on their very citadel. In his characteristically candid style, the late Congressman retorted — “Who is Badruddin?” — a question he repeated in public forums.