Guwahati: Giving a bold counter to the BJP’s propaganda about a “covert Congress-AIUDF alliance” for polls, Assam chief minister and Congress veteran Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday alleged that the BJP was having a ‘secret affairs’ with the minority political party, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) led by Badaruddin Ajmal.
“Even though both the BJP and AIUDF criticise each other in public to camouflage their covert understanding, they have a secret understanding and the former Congress minister and now a BJP leader Himanta Bishwa Sarmah is the link between the BJP and the AIUDF,” Gogoi said addressing party workers at Rajiv Bhawan after 11 prominent leaders from different political parties joined Congress on Tuesday.
The ruling Congress received a shot in the arm with 11 prominent leaders joining the party’s fold. Former All Assam Students’ Union president Shankar Prasad Rai today joined the Congress parting ways with the BJP protesting the BJP-AGP tie-up. Adviser of influential All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union (AKRASU) Biswajit Rai, two senior AIUDF leaders, one senior AGP leaders were among those who joined the Congress today in presence of Gogoi.
Gogoi added, “The BJP thus is keeping its option open to take support of the AIUDF to form a Jammu-Kashmir type government in Assam after the polls.
The reason why the BJP is now silent on its main agenda of detecting and deporting illegal Bangladeshi migrants from Assam is that it doesn’t want to antagonize AIUDF which is the main champion of the causes of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the state.”
“Himanta Bishwa was having close links with Ajmal even when he was in Congress and advocated for fielding weak Congress candidates against key AIUDF leaders including Ajmal during 2011 Assembly polls,” Gogoi disclosed apparently with an objective to woo voters in eastern Assam opposed to the upsurge of AIUDF in the state.
Gogoi maintained the people of Assam had become disillusioned with the BJP and its leader Narendra Modi who have miserably failed to keep promises made during the Lok Sabha polls.
“The prices of essentials have steeped instead of coming down, not a single Bangladeshi migrant has been deported from Assam as promised by Modi. There is no chances of granting ST status to six ethnic communities in the state too though they were promised by the BJP before Lok Sabha polls,” he said.
The Congress which have majority of LACs in indigenous communities-dominated eastern Assam in its grip, doesn’t want to be seen as a close ally of the AIUDF which is considered champion of Bangladeshi migrants in eastern Assam area.
However, the AIUDF leader Badaruddin Ajmal has been openly saying that post-election Congress will have no alternative but to take support of the AIUDF to form government.
