GUWAHATI: Ahead of Assam elections due early next year, an alliance between opposition parties -- Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has been more or less finalised.
A core committee meeting of the AIUDF, attended among others by party chief and Lok Sabha member Maulana Badruddin Ajmal on Saturday, took a decision to be a constituent of a grand alliance envisaged by the Congress. The two parties are likely to meet soon and declare their alliance vis-a-vis the formation of the grand alliance.
AIUDF spokesman Haider Hussain Bora said the party’s core committee meeting was delayed as the perfume baron Ajmal was stranded in Mumbai due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We endorse the grand alliance and as such, decided to join it. It is an old decision. The core committee couldn’t discuss the issue over the past few months as our party president was away in Mumbai. We also wanted that the opposition parties come together,” Bora added.
The Congress said the sole motive behind the proposed grand alliance was to oust the BJP from power.
“The Congress had earlier adopted a resolution on the formation of the grand alliance with all like-minded parties. Several non-BJP parties had welcomed the decision. In fact, to welcome our resolution, a delegation of the AIUDF had visited us,” Congress spokesman Rituparno Konwar told New Indian Express.
He said the Left parties had already confirmed their participation in the grand alliance while a regional ally of the BJP was sending feelers to join it.
Assam saw the formation of four regional parties in recent months. They include one that was floated by All Assam Students’ Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad while another was floated by 70 organisations, led by peasants’ body Krishak Mukti Sangram Samitee of which jailed activist Akhil Gogoi is a leader. Congress appealed to them to join the grand alliance.
The AIUDF, which is seen by many as having floated to protect the interests of illegal immigrants, has been always open to an alliance with the Congress but former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of the grand old party had been averse to it. He feared an alliance with the minority-based party could harm the Congress in Upper Assam where a strong sentiment of Assamese nationalism works.