The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) led by perfume baron Maulana Badruddin Ajmal will contest the 2021 Assam Assembly election in alliance with the Congress and the Left Front.
The decision to accept the proposal from the Congress was taken at the core committee meeting of the party held here on Saturday.
“The meeting was delayed because of the COVID-19 restrictions. Our president [Mr Ajmal] gave his assent to joining hands with the Congress and other like-minded, secular political parties that have opposed the Citizenship [Amendment] Act,” AIUDF spokesperson Haider Hussain Bora said.
“The AIUDF’s approval for taking on the BJP together has paved the way for a mahajoot [grand alliance],” Congress spokesperson Rhituparna Konwar said, adding that the Communist Party of India, the CPI (Marxist) and the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) had come on board the anti-BJP alliance.
CM candidate
The two parties had discussed the possibility of a grand alliance almost two months ago. But there were differences on the issue of projecting the chief ministerial candidate. The issue is now likely to be discussed after the “grand alliance” is in a position to form the government.
Congress MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the 126-member Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, on Sunday reminded the new regional parties that the BJP could return to power if not stopped together.
“Some regional parties have virtually become defunct while a few new ones have been formed with the avowed goal of dislodging the BJP in the 2021 elections. I wish them all the best, but the BJP will return to power if the anti-BJP forces fail to forge a united front,” he said.
He said this with reference to the Raijor Dal, the political party that peasant rights leader Akhil Gogoi’s group, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, and its associates launched on October 2.
The Congress leader also alluded to the Asom Jatiya Parishad that two influential students’ organisations — the All Assam Students’ Union and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad — had formed in September.