Congress-AIUDF likely to join hands in Assam

With preparation for 2021 Assembly polls gaining momentum in Assam, former chief minister Tarun Gogoi has started exercise of stitching a new political alliance between Assam Congress and All India United Democratic (AIUDF) that may turn out to be a formidable combination to take on the saffron party in the state.

However the foundation of this alliance was laid during the last Rajya Sabha elections when Gogoi walked hand-in-hand with AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal to ensure the victory of journalist Ajit Kumar Bhuyan. Bhuyan won, along with two others supported by the BJPled alliance.

Now, CongressAIUDF alliance for the upcoming state elections early next year is likely to be officially announced soon. The formation can give rise to a polarisation of votes besides containing the division of antiBJP votes in the state.

The U-turn of veteran

Congress leader and three-time Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, from his remarks like — who is Ajmal, AIUDF is a communal party and for that matter defining AIUDF as B-team of BJP, has certainly come as surprise to many but a large section of political observers, consider the move of the veteran Congress leader as masterstroke to regain its footholds in minority vote bank to which the party had started losing to AIUDF.

Though, perception of a section of state leaders was still that in Assam, which is fragmented by raging identity issues, any alliance with the AIUDF might be perceived as communally polarising, thereby helping the BJP.

Perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal had floated All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in 2005 and since then it has strengthened its hold among the minority.

The AIUDF in its first elections in 2006 captured a large support base among Muslims of Bengali descent, and won 10 seats out of the total 126, and became a force to reckon with.

While justifying the need of an alliance AIUDF general secretary Aminul Islam, said, “We have to forget differences of the past, and work towards securing the future of the Assamese people and Assam through a common minimum programme. We are hoping that Akhil Gogoi-led Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, the Left parties, and the new front launched by newly elected Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Bhuyan, will come with us.”

To what the former chief minister is defining as “grand alliance”, has also been backed by Assam Congress chief Ripun Bora who said, “The AIUDF believes in the Assam Accord and supports its implementation. The AIUDF is against the CAA. They are in the interest of the people of Assam. They are not communal — they are not antiHindu, but the BJP is anti-Muslim. Of course, they are working for the community they represent, and that is not a crime.”