Assam academician quits as adviser of Akhil Gogoi’s party

Noted academician and intellectual Hiren Gohain has resigned as the chief adviser of Raijor Dal over the political stand of its president, jailed rights activist Akhil Gogoi, involving the minority-based All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). Mr. Gogoi had in an open letter asked all Opposition parties to field consensus candidates across Assam’s 126 Assembly seats in order to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from retaining power. But he wanted the AIUDF to be kept out of such an arrangement as he believed the party headed by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal was as communal as the BJP.