GUWAHATI: The entry of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal into the October 6 Nagaon Lok Sabha by-poll has changed the electoral dynamics.
The AIUDF announced Ajmal’s candidature on Monday. He will file his nomination on Tuesday, the last day for filing nominations.
Nagaon was earlier expected to see a contest between the ruling BJP and the Congress. Ajmal’s entry is likely to turn it into a triangular contest, although the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) is also in the fray.
Ajmal, who is currently the MLA from Binnakandi, will face former IAS officer Debasish Sharma of the BJP, Congress candidate Sibamoni Bora and AITC candidate Abdul Salam. Sharma served as Nagaon Deputy Commissioner before taking voluntary retirement on September 3. He joined the BJP on September 8.
The Congress alleged that the BJP was trying to win the by-poll by riding piggyback on the AIUDF.
Assam Congress chief and Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi said Ajmal’s entry showed the strength of the Congress in Nagaon.
“Earlier, the AIUDF was thinking of another candidate, but after the Congress named its candidate, the AIUDF had done a rethink,” Gogoi said.
He alleged that the BJP realised the Congress had fielded a strong candidate and panicked. As a result, he said, it had sought the help of its “trusted political ally”, the AIUDF.
“...I think Maulana Ajmal Ji is taking the next step to help Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,” he alleged.
Congress leader Mira Borthakur Goswami also alleged that Ajmal was contesting as part of a BJP-AIUDF plan to divide Congress votes.
“But this is not going to work. The people of Nagaon are smart and they will vote for our candidate. We are confident,” Goswami said.
Dismissing the Ajmal factor in the by-poll, she pointed out that he had lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Dhubri by more than 10 lakh votes to Congress candidate Rakibul Hussain.
The CM acknowledged that Nagaon was not a traditional BJP stronghold but claimed that people were looking for a change. “If the BJP wins Nagaon, it will win all 126 seats in the 2031 Assembly polls,” he said.
The by-poll was necessitated by the resignation of two-time former Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who is now the BJP MLA from Dispur. Nagaon became a Muslim-majority seat following the 2023 delimitation exercise.