All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal has decided to field candidates from only three seats out of total 14 seats in Assam, to help the Congress party in the other 11 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
As per reports, Ajmal has said that the party has said that it is ready to sacrifice its own prospects in upcoming Lok Sabha elections, to keep Bhartiya Janta Party out of power by preventing ‘division of secular votes’.
The AIUDF was trying to forge an understanding with Congress party in the state so as to keep defeat BJP in elections. But the state Congress leadership was unwilling for a formal alliance with AIUDF, as it may dissuade Hindus in the state from voting for the party.
“We are eager to help if Congress really wants our help. We can sacrifice anything, even our electoral prospect, to stop the BJP”, Ajmal was quoted by reports. He had added that he is ready to forget comments made by former CM Tarun Gogoi against him in the past.
AIUDF will contest from only three seats: Dhubri, from where Badruddin Ajmal will seek re-election, Karimganj and Barpeta. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election the party had contested in 9 seats, which means this time they will help the Congress party in the other seats by not dividing anti-BJP votes.
BJP and its ally Assam Gana Parishad, which returned to NDA fold recently, slammed the “unholy nexus” between Congress and AIUDF.
“Earlier, AIUDF said it would field candidates in all constituencies where there is a substantial minority voter base. This sudden change of plans makes it clear AIUDF and Congress have entered an understanding,” Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Assam BJP President, was quoted by Times of India.
However, both AIUDF and Congress have denied claims of an understanding between two parties. Congress has labelled the AIUDF as weak, in the wake of its attempts to inch closer to Congress.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, AIUDF had won 3 seats out of 14 total and in 2016 Assembly elections it had managed to win 13 seats out of 126 seats.
AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal has been marred with various controversies in the past.
In December, last year, Ajmal had assaulted a journalist during an interaction with the press. He was talking to media in Assam, after felicitating the winning candidates of the party in the recently concluded Panchayat elections. During the interaction, Ajmal had suddenly got angry with a question asked by the journalist from ETV and had verbally abused him. He also had threatened to physically attack him, in front of other journalists and party workers.
Last year, Chief of Army Staff Bipin Rawat had cited the example of AIUDF, to explain the rapid influx of illegal Bangladeshi Muslims in North-east.
“I don’t think that you can change the population dynamics of this area. If it was five districts, 8 to 9 the inversion has taken place whichever be the government, there is a party called AIDUF. If you look at it, they have grown at a faster time frame than with the BJP grew over the years.” General Rawat had said. He had also compared the rise of AIUDF in Assam with that of Jan Sangh and had commented that former had risen at a very rapid speed in Assam.
“Finally, what will be the state of Assam, we have to take a call.” He had added.
Similarly, Assam’s state finance minister Himata Biswa Sarma had said that:
“By 2021 if the eight lakh population of Hindu Bengali from Bangladesh is taken out from Assam, the community’s population of Assam will reduce to a mere 51 or 52 per cent, which will pave the way for Badruddin Ajmal or Sirajudin Ajmal to become the CM of the state”.
