Assam Cong split over AIUDF tie-up

Minority leaders of Assam Congress have urged the party leadership to stay away from AUDF of Badruddin Ajmal, arguing it would hurt their prospects in assembly elections.
A delegation of minority leaders met AICC general secretary C P Joshi on Tuesday and submitted their view on the issue which is a subject of incessant speculation ahead of April polls. Abdul Rashid Mandal, chairman of All Assam Minority Development Board, told TOI that the AUDF founder was trying desperately to convince the Congress that it would benefit from an alliance. “Ajmal is doing this through individual leaders in Congress,” he said. The group — Mandal, Wajid Ali Chaudhary, chairman of Assam Congress minority department, Abdul Hamid and former MP Anwar Hussain among others — are seen as guided by chief minister Tarun Gogoi who is against any truck with AUDF. Interestingly, Mandal alleged the Ajmal bid to win over AICC was a strategy hatched by Congress renegade and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma. “BJP wants to confuse both Hindus and Muslims through this,” he claimed. The issue of alliance with AUDF is tricky since Congress would go into the Assam polls with an accumulated incumbency of three terms under Gogoi, prompting many to argue that the party should try to consolidate all vote banks.
Bihar ally JD(U) is a prime advocate of this reasoning. However, strong sections including a majority of MPs and legislators feel that an alliance with AUDF would turn away Hindu votes from the Congress kitty, the concern acquiring serious edge in view of the forceful push BJP is making in this Assam election. In between the extremes of arms-length and alliance politics, strategists say Congress is mulling the option of nudging Ajmal for an informal arrangement in the name of “secular camaraderie”. Since AUDF candidates would eat into the minority votes of Congress, sources say it would be beneficial if Ajmal is persuaded to not contest seats where his party has no chance of winning. “If Ajmal is truly against the communal forces, why should he fight only to hurt Congress,” it is argued.