AIUDF refutes charge, says no tie-up with BJP

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 31: Refuting the charges leveled against it by the Congress that the AIUDF had a secret understanding with the BJP for the bye-polls slated to be held in the State on November 19, the AIUDF today said that it was a fictitious story concocted by the Congress.

Talking to reporters at its party head office in the city, AIUDF general secretary-cum-spokesperson Abdur Rahim Khan said: “The sudden meeting between BJP’s Lakhimpur LS seat candidate Pradhan Baruah and Badruddin Ajmal at MLA Hostel recently was true. It’s also true that Baruah sought the grace of the AIUDF. However, what APCC president Ripun Bora told the media that the AIUDF and the BJP had a secret understanding, now for the bye-poll, is not true. Under no circumstances, the AIUDF can extend its support to the BJP.”

Reacting to Bora’s allegation that the Congress had to lose as many as 36 seats in the last Assembly election only because of the AIUDF fielding candidates in those LACs, the former MLA said: “This is not true. In earlier elections too we did field candidates. How could the Congress win those seats at that time? In Upper Assam, we didn’t field our candidates. How many seats has the Congress won there? The Congress had to face defeat as the voters rejected it for its corruption.”

On the by-polls in Lakhimpur and Baithalangshu, Rahim appealed to the people of the State to exercise conscience vote for secular candidates. He said that the Sonowal-led BJP government failed on all front. “He spoke of change, but what change it brought to the State is open to all. He did promise to deport all illegal Bangladeshis from Assam, but now he is trying to bring Hindu Bangladeshis to Assam,” Rahim said, and added: “The work for the update of the NRC was said to be in accordance with the Assam Accord. However, now the process of NRC update has come to a standstill. The government at Dispur is conducting eviction drives in the State, but targeting only those belonging to Islamic faith. The government is yet to issue any notice to any company, ministers, MLAs or bureaucrats. The target is only the Muslim community.”