The Rajya Sabha election has seen former chief minister Tarun Gogoi and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal publicly bury their 15-year old political hatchet and announce that this alliance could go beyond the 2021 Assembly polls.
The two leaders were all smiles as they walked hand-in-hand out of the Assembly after submitting the nomination papers of the Opposition parties’ common candidate Ajit Bhuyan on Friday afternoon, leaving none in doubt that the animosity between the two was a thing of the past with both telling reporters that they are in for a long haul.
The two leaders also made it clear before the media that the bonhomie would continue beyond 2021, indicating that the next Assembly election for the BJP and its coalition would not be smooth.
“Both walking together, shaking hands was the defining moment not only of the RS polls but also of contemporary Assam politics,” a Congress general secretary told The Telegraph, summing up the mood in both the camps.
AIUDF and Congress insiders said the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) movement had provided the two parties an opportunity to work together against the “communal and divisive BJP” by “shedding the baggage of the past and turning a new leaf”.
In the past, Gogoi and other Congress leaders have avoided being categorical whether the party would join hands with the AIUDF in the 2021 Assembly elections. On Friday, they talked about the necessity for anti-CAA forces to join hands to oust the BJP.
Another significant development during the filing of nomination was the presence of CPM and CPI leaders, suggesting a broader Opposition alliance taking shape in the state ahead of the 2021 polls to take on the BJP.
Gogoi told this correspondent that the Rajya Sabha polls was the semi-final. “The 2021 Assembly polls will be the final. We will work towards stitching a broader secular alternative against the communal and divisive BJP. We will further cement our ties with the AIUDF and other secular forces. Our friendship with the AIUDF will continue. We will also join hands with the CPI, CPM, AGP, KMSS, intellectuals and those who believe in democracy and we will defeat the BJP,” he said.
Asked what had changed between 2005, when he had said “Who is Badruddin Ajmal?”, and 2020, vis-à-vis Ajmal and the AIUDF, Gogoi said, “When I said who was Badruddin in 2005 he was not even an elected member of a panchayat. But today he is a senior MP, runs a party with over a dozen MLAs and has a following of his own. How can I say he is nobody today?”
Ajmal said, “Gogoi sahib has talked about our alliance till 2021. I am telling you today that our alliance will continue beyond 2021.”
The vote share of the Congress and the AIUDF was 31 and 13 per cent respectively in the 2016 Assembly election against the BJP and its coalition partners’ 41.9 per cent. The AIUDF has a solid presence in lower Assam and the Barak Valley. The emergence of AIUDF has severely dented the Congress’ minority vote bank. With the tea community also drifting away from the Congress, it has lost election after election since 2014. The AIUDF not fielding its candidate was largely responsible for the Congress winning the Nagaon and Kaliabor Lok Sabha seats.
“If both join hands in 2021, we will be more than a handful for the BJP but a lot of understanding and tact will be required to make this alliance work, the RS poll is the test case,” a Congress leader said.
Gogoi has been appealing to AGP leaders to be vocal against CAA. Barring Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, other leaders of AGP, a coalition partner of the BJP, have been maintaining silence over the CAA.
Additional reporting by our special correspondent