Guwahati: The relationship between the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Congress, once allies in Assam, has worsened in the past two years, turning them into bitter rivals.
The Congress has accused the AIUDF of being a “mouthpiece for the BJP” — a day after AIUDF president and MP Badruddin Ajmal alleged that Congress leaders were hand-in-glove with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, accepting money from him for anti-party activities.
At a press briefing in Assam’s Dhubri district Tuesday, Ajmal had said, “We have no interest in aligning with the state Congress, but it has always been part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Our future decisions will be made with the Central UPA, not with Congressmen here.”
Ajmal’s tirade against the Congress has morphed into direct attacks at its leadership. The perfume baron alleged that APCC president Bhupen Kumar Bora and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (in-charge of Assam) Jitendra Singh “would require passes for meeting top Congress leaders in Delhi”.
“They are not politicians, but only focused on minting money to sell off the Congress. They collect bags of money from the chief minister,” he claimed Tuesday.
The Congress Wednesday condemned Ajmal’s remarks, with party MP and AICC general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh issuing a statement: “Ajmal is nothing but a mouthpiece for the BJP like some other parties like the AIMIM. He has nothing whatsoever to do with the UPA as he claims.”
In his statement, Ramesh said Ajmal’s remarks against the Congress leadership in Assam are “blatantly defamatory, most unacceptable and totally bogus”.
Senior Congress spokesperson in Assam, Bobbeeta Sharma, said, “He (Ajmal) is the number one agent of BJP, and we should never ever have an alliance with him anymore at national level. In the state, we already broke our alliance and I think it is good riddance to bad rubbish.”
Speaking to ThePrint, BJP legislator from Mariani constituency, Rupjyoti Kurmi said the acrimony between the two parties could have benefitted his party even in the Presidential elections where BJP-led NDA’s Droupadi Murmu won.
“If we observe the presidential election, you will see that the number of votes from the BJP, the AGP (Asom Gana Parishad), the BPF (Bodoland People’s Front) and the UPPL (United People’s Party Liberal) were not only intact, but also exceeded. Surely, the extra votes were from the Opposition, and the two primary (opposition) parties are the Congress and the AIUDF,” he said.
He added: “There’s no point in hiding anything — Ajmal is blaming others, but his party members must have also voted in favour of the BJP. And why would he allow someone to do that, if not fulfilling business interests?”
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Rewind to 2020
The Congress maintained its distance from the AIUDF till former state unit president and three-time CM Tarun Gogoi was at the helm, but Ajmal often pledged an undivided support for the Congress during elections, including the December 2020 Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) polls.
In March 2020, the Rajya Sabha election saw Gogoi and Ajmal publicly call time on their feud and announce that the alliance could go beyond the 2021 assembly polls. The two leaders were all smiles as they walked hand-in-hand out of the assembly after submitting the nomination papers of their common candidate Ajit Bhuyan.
Ahead of the 2021 Assam assembly polls, Congress announced the ‘Mahajot’, a grand alliance of 10 parties. The ‘Mahajot’ had six parties when it was formally announced on 19 January 2021. These were: The Congress, the AIUDF, the Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist), the CPI (Marxist-Leninist), and the Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM). Four others — former BJP ally BPF, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and two local parties — joined later. Of the allies, only the Congress, AIUDF, BPF, and CPI(M) won 50 seats (Congress: 29, AIUDF: 16, BPF: 4, CPIM: 1) in the assembly elections.
In August 2021, however, following a core committee meeting, the Congress broke its alliance with the AIUDF. Accusing the AIUDF of “continuous and mysterious praise” for the BJP, Assam PCC announced their decision of severing ties with the party.
The charge against the AIUDF stemmed from Ajmal’s brother and party MLA Sirajuddin Ajmal’s praise for Sarma for his work. It was only the BJP that gained from the Congress-AIUDF alliance when the state saw intense polarisation.
In January 2022, the BPF, once an ally that fell out with the BJP after the BTC election, returned to its fold as its partner in the state assembly, having floor coordination with allies. The parting of ways between the BJP and the BPF had followed months of tension after the latter rejected the third Bodo Accord signed in January 2020. The accord was signed by the central and the Assam governments with the four factions of insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) to end Bodo insurgency and bring peace and development to the region.
Resentment within Congress
Some senior Central and state Congress leaders had reservations about allying with the AIUDF in the first place but the party high command had the last word. While the AIUDF became a part of the Congress-led Grand Alliance, what was born out of a necessity did not last long.
There was unspoken resentment within the Congress. The move saw defection of Congress leaders such as Rupjyoti Kurmi, a strong tea tribes leader. Kurmi resigned in June 2021 and joined the BJP. The tea tribe belt that used to be a strong Congress votebank now rests with the BJP.
The Congress was never comfortable with Ajmal’s rise in Assam politics as it undermined its hitherto undisputed Muslim votebank — there are six to eight Lok Sabha seats in Assam where minority votes are a deciding factor. In Nagaon, Mangaldai (Darrang), Karimganj, Barpeta and Dhubri districts, Muslims are a majority. Despite his influence over the electorate waning over the years, Ajmal still seems to influence a sizable percentage of Muslim voters in Assam.
It is the AIUDF’s focus only on Muslims that also didn’t sit well with the state unit of the Congress. State leader Bobeeta Sharma claimed that the AIUDF ran lousy campaigns during the 2021 assembly elections and its leaders made controversial statements (that were) detrimental for the Congress.
“Ajmal’s son, in one of the election campaigns, said that the state will now have a ‘Daari-Tupi Sarkaar’ (Beard-skull caps government). They were doing everything (which was) not right for our image. Unlike the AIUDF that focuses only on minorities, we cater to all citizens. We tolerated the AIUDF because we thought they had good intentions, given their long run with the UPA, in fighting a common rival,” she said.
Blame game still on
Ajmal also blamed the previous Congress regime in Assam for failing to protect the interests of the indigenous people and going back on its promise to provide families with land pattas. He was speaking against this week’s drive launched by the state government to evict encroachers from the Pava Reserve Forest forest land in Assam’s Lakhimpur district.
Congress’s Sharma was quick to retort. “Ajmal has a secret pact with the BJP that is using him to attack the Congress in many ways. He has business interests too, and their relationship is no longer a secret. Ajmal’s task is to create a political upheaval to divert attention from real issues. He’s blaming the Congress today for the eviction,” she added.
“It is true that the Congress and the AIUDF fought the last assembly elections as allies. That decision had not been an easy one to take for the Congress. But it was taken in the belief that Shri Ajmal will be a consistent and reliable partner and who would strengthen secular forces in the state and in the country,” read the AICC statement issued by Ramesh.
“After the election results, it became very clear that Ajmal had worked out an understanding with the chief minister of Assam. The two worked out a relationship between themselves with the sole purpose of maligning and defaming the Congress and its leadership,” it further saud.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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