Assam: Congress, AIUDF tussle for seats less than a month after poll tie-up

Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) have started wrangling for seats less than three weeks after the two Opposition parties announced an alliance for the upcoming assembly election in Assam.

On January 19, both parties, along with regional Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM) and three Left parties—Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist)—had formed a grand alliance to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling coalition in the state.

But the alliance is yet to hold any official meeting to chalk out poll strategy or seat-sharing. In the meantime, AIUDF has started organising mass rallies on its own and is even eyeing seats where Congress has legislators.

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“We have our candidate Mujibur Rahman in Dalgaon whereas Congress has their sitting MLA. If they fail to arrive at an understanding, we will field our candidate. It could be a friendly contest between us and the Congress, but we are confident of a win,” AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal told journalists on Sunday.

“If the alliance partners don’t agree to us contesting alone from Dalgaon, are you people agreeable to a friendly contest (between AIUDF and Congress)? And if that happens will you be able to make our candidate Mujibur Rahman win?” he questioned the crowd at Dalgaon.

Located in Mangaldoi district, Dalgaon has been a Congress stronghold and Md. Ilias Ali has been winning the seat consecutively since 2006. During his rally there on Sunday, Ajmal, who is also a Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri, shouted “Ilias Ali, go back” from the dais as the public cheered.

“As per my understanding, the sitting MLA should get the party ticket. I have no idea why Ajmal is insisting on fielding candidates where Congress has MLAs. It would lead to a division of minority votes and help a third party, most likely the BJP,” said Congress MLA from Dalgaon Ilias Ali.

A day earlier, Ajmal held a big rally at Sarukhetri in Barpeta district-, another constituency where Congress has a sitting MLA—Jakir Husain Sikdar. AIUDF’s Minakshi Rahman is a contender for the seat.

At present, Congress has 19 MLAs in the 126-member state assembly while AIUDF has 14. None of the other four parties in the alliance have any presence in the assembly.

Congress is expected to have separate meetings with the alliance partners on Tuesday to discuss seat-sharing.