AIUDF makeover after poll debacle
The minority-based party All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) will go for an overhaul of party organisation, its chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal said. The reason it will reorganise its various committees, including the central committee, is to try and revive the party. The AIUDF had suffered a major setback in the Lok Sabha elections after having lost all three seats it contested. Ajmal was defeated by the biggest margin of votes by former Congress minister Rakibul Hussain. Ajmal said the workers of the party failed to win the trust of voters while MLAs did not work as much as they should have.
BJP dismisses exodus reports
Speculations are rife that the BJP in Assam will lose some of its old guards to the Congress in the coming days. The BJP, however, is least perturbed, calling the same the creation of the media. “There is no dissidence in the party and nobody is leaving,” BJP Assam president Bhabesh Kalita said. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said people leaving one party and joining another is common in politics. “Those who believe in BJP’s ideology normally do not leave the party. If somebody has any plans to go to the Congress, I would request him to work for Assamese and Hindus,” Sarma said.
Decade of DNA forensic service by Aaranyak’s lab
The Wildlife Genetics Laboratory (WGL) at biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak, the only such facility in the Northeast, has been providing wildlife DNA forensic analysis services in Assam for the past ten years with success. The laboratory has provided its services in over a hundred cases, thereby offering assistance in wildlife crime investigation in the region. The lab has provided a range of DNA analysis services including the identification of wildlife species from morphologically indistinguishable material, forensic individual matching via DNA fingerprinting of rhinos, elephants and parentage testing of captive elephant calves.
Prasanta mazumdar
Our correspondent in Guwahati
prasantamazumdar@newindianexpress.com