Cong-AIUDF marriage

The Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) have made it clear that the two parties will jointly fight the forthcoming state Assembly elections. The move to constitute a "grand alliance", was first made by the Congress party earlier last month, with AIUDF supremo Maulana Badruddin Ajmal responding positively to it. Election to the Assam Assembly will be held in March or April next year. The Congress-AIUDF alliance reminds the people of Assam of two things. One, that the AIUDF was formed soon after the Supreme Court of India had struck down the notorious Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act of 1983 in July 2005 after putting on record the fact that large-scale infiltration from across the India-Bangladesh boundary amounted to a silent demographic invasion of Assam.

Two, veteran Congress leader and three-time chief minister Tarun Gogoi had, in the run-up to the 2006 state election, ridiculed Ajmal's political existence by asking: "Who is Badruddin?" The same Tarun Gogoi was in March seen walking hand-in-hand with Ajmal after the two parties had jointly nominated veteran journalist Ajit Kumar Bhuyan as their unanimous candidate for a Rajya Sabha vacancy from Assam. The BJP, which had woven a practical alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and BPF in the 2016 Assembly elections, however has always described the Congress and AIUDF as two sides of the same coin. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) too is on record saying it does not consider Congress and AIUDF as two different entities. The obvious reason behind this conviction of the BJP and AGP is that both parties stand on the same plane as far as infiltration to Assam is concerned.

The only difference is that while the Congress has been always accused and held responsible for turning a blind eye and facilitating infiltration from erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh, the AIUDF is known for its vow to protect the interests of the infiltrators and their progeny. Looking at the immediate future, one can say that the Congress-AIUDF marriage has the potential of winning more seats by the two parties than what they had won in the 2016 Assembly elections. Last time the BJP-led alliance had the advantage of a divided opposition. What strategy the BJP-led alliance will adopt to take on the combined force of the Congress and AUIDF will be worth watching in the months to come.