Congress concerned on ‘AIUDF’

The Congress high command is concerned that some Congressmen of Assam are trying to have an unofficial alliance with the AIUDF despite a formal opposition to that.

That is the reason why the Congress Election Committee (CEC) could not announce the names of the candidates as  the CEC suspect that a section of the Congressmen willfully trying to give weak candidates against AIUDF in   Barpeta and Dhubri constituency.

The Congress high command summoned leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia and Party President Ripun Bora. The needle of suspicion is on Ripun Bora for trying to have a secret understanding with the AIUDF.

However, the BJP is drumming up that to the full extent in a bid to alienate Congress from the mainstream indigenous Assamese voters even as benefits of the AIUDF-Congress "alliance" is visibly palpable in Koliabor, Nagaon and Mangaldoi constituency. In each of these seats, non-presence of AIUDF have heavily tilted the balance in favour of Congress.

But the whole controversy is surrounding around Barpeta and Dhubri constituencies as Congress high command is hell-bent on fighting hard in these constituencies as they feel that they have a strong chance of winning it.

Last night's meeting of the CEC chaired by the Congress president sought clarification from Assam Congress president Ripun Bora and State Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia whether Congress has decided to go for an alliance with Badruddin Ajmal led AIUDF.

The meeting was also attended by Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and general secretary KC Venugopal among others.

Sources said that the issue of alienating the indigenous Assamese community by forging an understanding with Ajmal also figured at the meeting.

Meanwhile, emerging from the meeting Ripun Bora told newsmen that there will be further discussion. He claimed that there is no alliance with AIUDF. "The Congress Party will contest in all the 14 seats and we are not bothered with how many seats AIUDF is contesting," Bora said.

"We have not asked AIUDF to leave any seats for us. AIUDF is spinning stories because they do not have candidates. We will not field weak candidates, as we always field the best candidate. AICC will announce the final list of candidates," added Borah.