Anti-CAA editor named as Congress-AIUDF common candiate for Assam RS seat

Representative image.

In what is seen as a step towards opposition unity ahead of next year's Assembly elections, Congress and AIUDF on Tuesday decided to support anti-CAA editor, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats in Assam.

Elections for the three seats are scheduled for March 26.

"Since neither we (Congress) nor AIUDF has the number to win the seat alone, we decided to support Bhuyan. We wanted a candidate who is secular and can take the anti-CAA movement forward and we think Bhuyan is a good choice," Ripun Bora, president of Asom Pradesh Congress Committee told reporters in New Delhi, after a meeting with senior leaders of the party.

AIUDF leader Hafiz Bashir Ahmed Kasimi said the party decided to support Bhuyan as he has been one of the prominent voices against the CAA and the "communal agenda" of BJP. AIUDF on Monday had proposed Priyanka Gandhi's name for the post but senior Congress leader did not show any interest, sources said.

The seats of Bhubaneswar Kalita, Sanjay Singh and Biswajit Daimary will fall vacant on April 9.

The ruling BJP decided to give one seat to its alliance partner Bodoland People's Front (BPF) and is likely to field Kalita for the second seat. Kalita, a former Congress Rajya Sabha member had switched over to BJP in August last year. BPF leader Biswajit Daimary filed his nomination papers for the seat on Tuesday.

Bhuyan's name was first proposed by the former chief minister and veteran Congress leader Tarun Gogoi saying that an anti-CAA face should be fielded as consensus candidate (Congress and AIUDF) to stop BJP from winning all three seats.

Bhuyan, a veteran Assamese journalist, who served as editor of a satellite news channel here had taken part in many anti-CAA meetings and has remained vocal against the amended act.

Reacting to Bhuyan's nomination, BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said it suggested that intellectuals like Bhuyan had fought against the CAA just to enter politics and become Rajya Sabha member.