Conflicting opinions in Congress over poll alliance with AIUDF

GUWAHATI: Congress in Assam has decided to stitch a pre-poll alliance with all anti-BJP parties but is riddled with conflicting internal opinions over Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF as a choice to partner with in the coming assembly election scheduled next year. The new assembly has to be elected before May 31.
Congress strongman and three-time former chief minister Tarun Gogoi said, “We are doing the alliance with AIUDF in the greater interest of the people of Assam. If anyone objects, let them do. It’s quite natural that there will be difference of opinion but the Congress core committee wants the alliance and that is what matters.”
To drive home the point how the core committee’s decision matters, Gogoi said, “In 2011, the AICC wanted us to ally with AIUDF. Even Sonia Gandhi wanted and so did Pranab Mukherjee, but I opposed it (and it did not happen).”
BJP key man and minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he has already started work to stop AIUDF on its tracks. “I am deeply concerned at the way Congress is laying the red carpet and opening its doors to Ajmal who is a threat to Assam’s culture and identity. So, I will do anything to protect Assam and its people and I have already started my work. The entire opposition will be limited to just about 20 to 22 seats,” he added.
Several Congress MLAs do not want the party to team up with AIUDF, fearing a backlash from indigenous Hindu voters, who dominate the majority of the 126 assembly constituencies.
“We are fighting BJP whose base is the indigenous Hindu electorate and we cannot go wrong in the biggest bloc in the seven upper Assam districts (Tinuskia, Dibruagarh, Sibsagar, Charaideo, Majuli, Jorhat and Golaghat) where 27 seats are at stake,” a Congress leader said.
He added, “The core committee meeting held yesterday (Wednesday) has resolved that Congress should go for alliance with anti-BJP parties, including AIUDF and Left, but nothing has been finalized yet.”
On the other hand, an AIUDF insider said, “AIUDF has no problems to ally with Congress. One preliminary discussion has already taken place between AIUDF and Congress representatives in New Delhi where it was decided to taste the water together in BTC election, which has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
He added, “Congress has been told to sort out their internal problems. Many of them feel that by aligning with AIUDF, chances of Congress in upper Assam will become weak, but the fact is that they are anyway weak there at the moment, even without AIUDF.”
Ajmal, a perfume baron, stepped into politics and set up AIUDF soon after the Supreme Court in 2005 quashed the Illegal Migration (Determination by Tribunal) Act by acting on a PIL filed by Sarbananda Sonowal, who is now the chief minister of the state. AIUDF made its electoral debut in 2006 and won 10 of the 60 seats it had contested.