Perfume baron-cum-parliamentarian Badruddin Ajmal's All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has kept its option open to forge an alliance with the Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha election by keeping one seat vacant for the grand old party in Assam. Assam, which sends 14 MPs to the Lok Sabha, has already started seeing political parties get into a huddle to get their poll arithmetic right.
The AIUDF's outreach comes days after the Assam Pradesh Congress made it crystal clear that it will not forge any alliance with the AIUDF for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
However, the AIUDF is hopeful that Congress would change its stance as the elections come closer in a bid to dethrone the BJP.
Speaking to ABP Live, senior AIUDF leader Rafiqul Islam said, "The Congress not joining our alliance will directly help the BJP. We want the Congress to join hands so that we can fight the BJP as a united force. Instead of joining our grand alliance, the Congress is having talks with some newly formed regional parties and smaller national parties."
The AIUDF leader further said that under the BJP-led government's rule, India's economy and democracy were not safe.
"Ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha election, we want that all the secular parties of the country join hands and converge on a common platform so that all the anti-BJP parties could give a tough fight to the saffron party and unseat it from power," Islam said.
He said an AIUDF delegation led by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal recently met Nitish Kumar and Sharad Pawar in their bid to form an Opposition front. The delegation also met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.
"Nitish Kumar has already taken the initiative of bringing all the anti-BJP parties under one umbrella, thus forming a united front to fight the BJP. The AIUDF has been fighting the BJP ever since it was formed in 2006 and we are determined to lend our full support to the grand alliance," Islam said.
Earlier this week, Congress state president Bhupen Borah said the party would not repeat its mistake in Assam which it had done in 2021 state assembly elections by forging an alliance with the AIUDF. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh, during his recent visit to the state, said party chief Mallikarjun Kharge has echoed the same tune of not going with the AIUDF.
The Congress is on the verge of uniting newly floated regional and Left parties.
Speaking to ABP Live, Borah said, "We have decided not to contest any election with the AIUDF due to our past bitter experiences. We had formed a grand alliance, which included the AIUDF, during the 2021 Assam Assembly election, but they betrayed us on several fronts. Again, during the Rajya Sabha election last year, their MLAs cross voted in favour of the BJP nominated candidates."
Borah also alleged that the AIUDF was being influenced by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
"AIUDF chief Maulana Badaruddin Ajmal is basically a businessman and his primary business is making perfumes which involve agarwood. Everyone is aware of the fact that CM Sarma had written a letter to the Director General of Police (DGP), Assam, and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Assam, mentioning that no individual should hinder Ajmal’s business. Why should we lend support to a party which is running their political agenda at the behest of Himanta Biswa Sarma," Borah further said.
In the 2019 general elections, BJP won nine of the 14 seats, Congress three, while one seat each went to the AIUDF and an independent candidate.