Former Bihar and Tripura governor and veteran Congress leader Devananda Konwar has announced his decision to join the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) led by Lok Sabha member and Mumbai-based perfume merchant Badruddin Ajmal. “I am a very old member of the Congress. It is the party which should have maintained a relationship with me and made me an advisor or working president. I think the Congress party does not want me. So I have decided to join the party which has the biggest mass base,” Konwar said. Initially appointed finance and power minister in Tarun Gogoi’s first Congress government in Assam in 2001, Konwar (72) had always considered himself to be a chief ministerial candidate. But he was dropped by Gogoi from his cabinet for his alleged dissident activities against the chief minister. Konwar had also landed in several controversies during his tenure as governor of Bihar, the most important centering around his alleged role in appointment of vice-chancellors of several universities in that state. He had also stirred some controversies while officiating as West Bengal governor for a couple of months in 2009-10, and was shifted in March 2013 to Tripura to complete his five-year tenure. Meanwhile, AIUDF supremo Badruddin Ajmal has welcomed Konwar’s willingness to join his party. “He is most welcome to our party,” Ajmal tweeted immediately after television news channels aired the news of Konwar’s decision.
