The Hindu : Other States / Assam News : Hazarika drops Kalam's name, rakes up controversy

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Monday, Apr 05, 2004

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Hazarika drops Kalam's name, rakes up controversy

Boko (Assam) APRIL 4. The legendary singer and BJP candidate from Guwahati, Bhupen Hazarika today, raked up a controversy when he sought to drum up support for his party by using President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's name.

Addressing a party meeting as part of the poll campaign, Dr. Hazarika sought to stress that the BJP was not a communal party since it has made a member of a Minority Community the country's President. {gt}How can BJP be communal, when it has made a Muslim like Abdul Kalam the supreme Commander of the Indian army," he asked.

The comment is bound to rake up a major controversy especially since Dr. Kalam himself has restricted all his movements till the end of the election so that no one can use his name or work during the electioneering.

The Congress has already sensed an issue and is determined to rake up a controversy. Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said it was unbecoming on the part of a cultural figure like Dr. Hazarika to use the name of the President of India to seek vote for a party.

"Dr. Kalam is the not the choice of the BJP party alone. He was the choice of the whole nation. Dr. Hazarika should not forget that," he said.

Dr. Hazarika was addressing a thinly-attended worker's meeting at Boko in south Kamrup this morning.

He had also attended meetings at Dudhnoi and Krishnai.

Dr. Hazarika, while seeking vote for him and the party, made no hesitation to repeatedly bring in the President's name while drawing the crowd with his popular evergreen songs.

The BJP leader is waging a grim battle in the Guwahati constituency in the face of non-cooperation by a section of his party workers, who had sought sitting the MP and Union Minister, Bijoya Chakarvarty, for the Guwahati seat. There was near rebellion for not giving her a re-nomination.

Sensing trouble, Dr. Hazarika repeatedly assured that he, if voted to power, would begin only where Mrs Chakarvarty had left seeking early resolution to the misgivings about his selection as the candidate.

Dr. Hazarika is not having an easy campaign trail as it was initially thought to be. Going by the response and enthusiasm among party workers, Dr. Hazarika would be needing more than his legendary singing prowess to translate his general popularity to vote.

He admitted today at the forecourt of the Boko school that the polls would not be a cakewalk for him.

Surprisingly left alone in the constituency by the party state leadership, he was having a tough time, negotiating the realities of the politics, as he read out from the written speech, often breaking into songs and poems drawing reference to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

UNI

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Hazarika drops Kalam's name, rakes up controversy