Chief minister Tarun Gogoi at the convention in Guwahati on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, June 23: Dispur today rang out in full-throated support for Anjuman Minhaje Rasool (S), an organisation working for minorities, at a venue where the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind lambasted the government a day earlier for luring Muslims.

Today’s event, the Anjuman’s seventh national convention, may well have looked like the Congress’s desperate attempt to garner minority support, but political pundits saw more to it.

Tarun Gogoi and company are throwing their weight behind Anjuman, sources in the ruling Congress said, to take on the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, which is behind the All India United Democratic Front.

“The Gogoi camp wants to ensure that Anjuman emerges as an alternative to the Jamiat before the polls,” one of them said, adding it would not have been impossible for Anjuman, which hardly has a base in the state, to hold a “successful” convention “without” Dispur’s patronage.

Though the avowed objective of Maulana Syed Athar Hussain Dehlavi-headed and presided convention was quest for peace, prosperity and opportunities for all, it had elections written all over it going by the spirit of the speeches. The one delivered by Gogoi even vowed to do whatever was possible for the welfare of the minority, tea and indigenous communities.

It is at the same venue that the Jamiat president Syed Arshad Madani yesterday criticised the Congress-led government for luring the Muslims before the polls by offering Rs 5 lakh to the madarsas and monthly salaries to imams and moulvis.

“I plan to launch a welfare scheme for moulvis and pujaris because we are secular. We will do whatever is possible,” Gogoi today reiterated.

Other speakers subtly flayed those who objected to the initiatives being taken by Dispur for the minorities and appealing to the gathering, mostly comprising moulvis and imams, to strengthen the hands of Gogoi so that he could carry on with his good work.

Anjuman’s state unit vice-chairman Rekibuddin Ahmed and Dehlavi admitted of the support extended by chief minister, some of his ministerial colleagues and MLAs to host the event that attracted more than a full house.

Also present were ministers Himanta Biswa Sarma and Rockybul Hussain, besides MLA Abdul Khaleque.

Deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha K. Rahman Khan, one of the invitees to the convention along with Swami Manoharan Saraswati of Pushkar, dwelt on the importance of education and humanity besides urging Dispur to carry out a survey of Wakf properties and ensure their protection.

“There are around four lakh properties spread across India. If we invest Rs 10,000 crore to save these, we can generate an annual return of Rs 10,000 crore. If this can be done, we don’t have to beg for assistance,” Khan said.

These two back-to-back meetings will be followed by a rally of the All Assam Imam Council on June 29.

The rally is said to be supported by minister Nazrul Islam, another indication of the woo-minority tactic.