Tarun Gogoi camp doesn’t want AIUDF tieup

In what has created serious differences within the rank and file of the ruling Congress, a delegation of minority leaders, backed by Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and PCC chief Anjan Dutta, has been campaigning before AICC leaders asking not to enter into any alliance with All India United Democ-ratic Front in Assam.

The chairman of All Assam Minority Development Board Abdul Rashid Mandal met AICC general secretary C.P. Joshi in Delhi and pleaded that AIUDF leader Badruddin Ajmal was trying desperately to convince the Congress for an alliance they claim would benefit the Congress. Claiming that Mr Ajmal was using his personal connections with AICC leaders to influence the central party leaders for an alliance, he told reporters that Mr Ajmal was propagating a strategy hatched by an ex-Congress minister and now BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma. “By doing this the BJP intends to confuse both Hindu and Muslim voters.” The delegation of minority leaders is said to have the backing of the CM, who is opposed to any alliance with AIUDF. Insiders in the Congress said Mr Gogoi had at least two rounds of meetings with AIUDF leaders, but under the pressure of AICC.

The unrest among Assam minority leaders became more visible soon after Mr Gogoi claimed that AIUDF was asking for at least 50 seats out of 126 in alliance.

Moreover Mr Gogoi was floating the idea of an understanding among the secular political parties, which the AIUDF did not agree with.

Since AIUDF candidates would eat into the minority votes of the Congress, sources said Mr Gogoi had been propagating an idea to AICC to persuade Mr Ajmal not to contest seats where his party has no chance of winning. “If Mr Ajmal is truly against the communal forces, why should he fight losing seats, only to hurt Congress,” a delegation of Assam minority leaders argued.