AIUDF to form 'grand alliance' with Congress for 2021 Assam polls

Sixteen years after coming into Assam politics to beat Congress, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) led by perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal has agreed to join hands with Congress with a target to beat BJP in next year's Assembly elections.

The core committee of AIUDF chaired by Ajmal on Sunday formally approved Congress' proposal to form a "grand alliance" ahead of the elections and contest the polls with seat-sharing arrangements.

Soon after the core committee meeting, Ajmal visited Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and met Congress veteran and former three-time chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who is admitted there with post-Covid-19 health issues. "Our alliance with Congress is final. But we will have detailed discussions to work out the modalities as soon as Gogoi is discharged from the hospital," Ajmal told reporters after meeting Gogoi, who once ridiculed Ajmal saying "Who is Badruddin."

However, Gogoi's stance towards Ajmal's party changed after it rose to prominence. AIUDF won three of 14 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 General elections and 13 of 126 Assembly seats in 2016. In fact, this time, according to sources in Congress, Gogoi took the first initiative to join hands with Ajmal's party in order to beat BJP and its regional allies, which wrested power from him in 2016. Gogoi was CM from 2001 to 2016.

Formed on October 3, 2005 with minorities as its vote bank, AIUDF contested elections considering Congress as its main opponent even as BJP, its ideological opponent was emerging as an alternative in Assam from 2014 Lok Sabha polls onwards. BJP along with two regional forces Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People's Front (BPF), formed their first government in Assam in 2016.

When pointed out that AIUDF was formed considering Congress as its main opponent, the party general secretary Aminul Islam told reporters, "In politics, there is no permanent enemy or friend. We are now ready to join hands with all anti-BJP parties and defeat BJP's communal politics and the anti-people policies, be it CAA or the recent agriculture amendment act."

Sources said both Congress and AIUDF are now trying to rope in BPF, given the growing strain in its relationship with BJP. BPF won 12 seats in 2016 polls and is an ally of the BJP-led government. But BJP, this time may go with United People's Party Liberal, another party, opposed to BPF in Bodoland Territorial Council areas.

They are also trying to convince the Assam Jatiya Parishad, formed by AASU and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad and Raijor Dal (People's Party), launched by jailed anti-CAA activist, Akhil Gogoi to join the "grand alliance."