<p>Guwahati: The debacle for the Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam politics started in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it was whitewashed.</p>.<p>The Congress's Rakibul Hussain snatched its only seat — Dhubri, Ajmal's bastion since the AIUDF's formation in 2005 — by a margin of more than 10 lakh votes. </p>.<p>The downfall for the AIUDF — once seen as the "saviour" of the state's 35% Muslim population — continued on Monday as it put up its worst performance in the Assembly elections with just two seats.</p>.<p>After being deserted by the Congress, the AIUDF contested 27 Assembly seats, but only Ajmal and Majibur Rahman registered victories — in Binnakandi and Dalgaon, respectively.</p>.Assam Assembly Election Results 2026 | Gaurav & his Ahom card fall flat as Congress hits 25-year low.<p>Ajmal defeated his rival from the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a BJP ally, while Rahman won against an Independent candidate in the North Assam seat.</p>.<p>The party had won in 16 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections when it contested as part of the Congress-led Opposition alliance. </p>.<p><strong>The downfall</strong></p>.<p>Ajmal's party, which emerged as the second-largest during Tarun Gogoi's tenure in 2011, started losing its ground after the draft list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in 2018.</p>.<p>The list — prepared with March 24, 1971, as the cut-off to solve Assam's long-pending foreigner problem — left out 19.06 lakh people, nearly half of whom were Bengali-speaking Muslims, AIUDF's vote bank.</p>.<p>Eventually, the party's inability to protect or support Bengali-speaking Muslims in tackling the citizenship crisis led to its downfall.</p>.<p>The anger against the AIUDF was evident in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the party's tally was reduced from three to just one seat, that of Ajmal. </p>.<p>Faced with the political uncertainty and the BJP's constant charge on Ajmal as a "protector of infiltrators", the AIUDF tried hard to remain a part of the Congress-led Opposition alliance for the 2026 Assembly polls.</p>.<p>However, Gaurav Gogoi's decision to sever ties with the AIUDF to counter the BJP's charge of the Congress being "pro-Muslim" left Ajmal's party in disarray. Subsequently, several of his MLAs quit and joined either the Congress or the AGP ahead of the April polls.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, even Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma publicly announced he would "wipe out" the AIUDF from Assam politics. </p>.<p>The results of the Assembly elections, announced on Monday, showed that out of the 19 seats the Congress managed to bag, 18 were won by Muslim candidates. The verdict, according to observers, suggested that Muslim votes got transferred from the AIUDF to the Congress.</p>.<p>"Given Sarma's aggression against Bengali-speaking Muslims, the latter had no option but to go back to the Congress to seek refuge and protection," an AIUDF leader told <em>DH</em> after the results. </p>
<p>Guwahati: The debacle for the Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam politics started in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it was whitewashed.</p>.<p>The Congress's Rakibul Hussain snatched its only seat — Dhubri, Ajmal's bastion since the AIUDF's formation in 2005 — by a margin of more than 10 lakh votes. </p>.<p>The downfall for the AIUDF — once seen as the "saviour" of the state's 35% Muslim population — continued on Monday as it put up its worst performance in the Assembly elections with just two seats.</p>.<p>After being deserted by the Congress, the AIUDF contested 27 Assembly seats, but only Ajmal and Majibur Rahman registered victories — in Binnakandi and Dalgaon, respectively.</p>.Assam Assembly Election Results 2026 | Gaurav & his Ahom card fall flat as Congress hits 25-year low.<p>Ajmal defeated his rival from the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a BJP ally, while Rahman won against an Independent candidate in the North Assam seat.</p>.<p>The party had won in 16 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections when it contested as part of the Congress-led Opposition alliance. </p>.<p><strong>The downfall</strong></p>.<p>Ajmal's party, which emerged as the second-largest during Tarun Gogoi's tenure in 2011, started losing its ground after the draft list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in 2018.</p>.<p>The list — prepared with March 24, 1971, as the cut-off to solve Assam's long-pending foreigner problem — left out 19.06 lakh people, nearly half of whom were Bengali-speaking Muslims, AIUDF's vote bank.</p>.<p>Eventually, the party's inability to protect or support Bengali-speaking Muslims in tackling the citizenship crisis led to its downfall.</p>.<p>The anger against the AIUDF was evident in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the party's tally was reduced from three to just one seat, that of Ajmal. </p>.<p>Faced with the political uncertainty and the BJP's constant charge on Ajmal as a "protector of infiltrators", the AIUDF tried hard to remain a part of the Congress-led Opposition alliance for the 2026 Assembly polls.</p>.<p>However, Gaurav Gogoi's decision to sever ties with the AIUDF to counter the BJP's charge of the Congress being "pro-Muslim" left Ajmal's party in disarray. Subsequently, several of his MLAs quit and joined either the Congress or the AGP ahead of the April polls.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, even Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma publicly announced he would "wipe out" the AIUDF from Assam politics. </p>.<p>The results of the Assembly elections, announced on Monday, showed that out of the 19 seats the Congress managed to bag, 18 were won by Muslim candidates. The verdict, according to observers, suggested that Muslim votes got transferred from the AIUDF to the Congress.</p>.<p>"Given Sarma's aggression against Bengali-speaking Muslims, the latter had no option but to go back to the Congress to seek refuge and protection," an AIUDF leader told <em>DH</em> after the results. </p>