CAA may unite Congress with Badruddin Ajmal's AIUDF for Assam Rajya Sabha seat

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) may unite Congress and Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF in Assam for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats, the election for which would be held on March 26.

Former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader, Tarun Gogoi, who was earlier opposed to Ajmal said he had suggested the party high command for fielding a Congress-AIUDF common candidate to prevent BJP from getting all three seats. "All anti-CAA forces must unite and join hands to keep BJP at bay. I spoke to Ajmal and his response was positive. I have recommended a few names, who can a consensus candidate for both Congress and AIUDF," Gogoi told reporters in Guwahati.

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

BJP decided to give one seat to its alliance partner Bodoland People's Front 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. BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said the party would take a call regarding the third seat if the opposition parties unite and field a common candidate.

Gogoi's list of possible candidates included names of Assamese female actor Barsha Rani Bishaya and singer Zubeen Garg, who took lead in the anti-CAA protests. Assam and most parts of the Northeast erupted in protest against CAA in December when it was passed by the Centre.

Opposition parties believe that the CAA would also make an impact in the next year's Assembly elections as indigenous people are angry with BJP over the act. Indigenous people fear that the CAA would endanger their ethnic identity as it seeks to give citizenship to large Hindu Bengali migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.