Guwahati, April 7: Veteran actor Raj Babbar and other Congress leaders today asked the people of Assam not to vote for the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), alleging that Badruddin Ajmal was hand-in-glove with the BJP.
"AIUDF is dangerous for Assam. People of Assam know it and should keep it in mind while voting," Raj Babbar, who joined the Congress in 2008 and lost the Ghaziabad seat to Gen. V.K. Singh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, told the media here this morning.
Babbar, who arrived here on Friday to campaign, today referred to a comment made by a BJP leader during a public rally in which the latter had promised to make a "Ram-Rahim" government.
"If the leader means BJP by Ram and AIUDF by Rahim, then it would be very harmful not only for the Hindus but also for the Muslims. The BJP in Assam is a squad formed by former AGP members and they will bring back the era of secret killings," Babbar said.
By "era of secret of killings", Babbar meant the three-year period (1998-2001) when the AGP was ruling the state for the second term and unidentified assailants killed relatives, friends and sympathisers of Ulfa militants.
The BJP's chief ministerial candidate, Sarbananda Sonowal, was an AGP member till 2011. The BJP forged an alliance with the AGP last month.
Babbar's remark was echoed by All India Congress Committee general secretary Shakeel Ahmed and its minority cell chairman Khurshid Ahmed Saiyed.
Citing the People's Democratic Front and BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, Ahmed said a similar alliance could happen in Assam.
"The PDP supported Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru while the BJP was against him. Now they have formed an alliance. In order to be in power, the BJP can go to any extent, even sacrifice its own ideologies. Now we all know what is happening in Kashmir and it is evident that the BJP is with the AIUDF in Assam. And if the two come to power it is going to be extremely dangerous for Assam," Ahmed said.
Ahmed also criticised the BJP for being "intolerant" in handling the Jawaharlal Nehru University incident in which student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on charges of sedition.
"JNU was established in 1969 in the name of the first Prime Minister by the Congress government and since its inception, it was evident that Leftist ideology prevailed there. We never interfered in their functioning at any point of time. Within two years of the BJP government, it slapped sedition charges on students and called them anti-nationals," Ahmed said.
"I rather ask the RSS, whose political wing is the BJP, to answer for not hoisting the national flag at its headquarters for the past 54 years. Apparently, saying Bharat mata ki jai and hoisting the Tricolour have become parameters of being a patriot nowadays. If so, the RSS must answer for hoisting their flag instead of the national flag," he said.
Assam PCC president Anjan Dutta said the AIUDF had been maintaining a relationship with the BJP after it came to power at the Centre in 2014. He also alleged that Ajmal had taken bribes from the BJP.
"Since the BJP came to power at the Centre, Ajmal has expanded his business empire and established himself as a business tycoon. Congress has all information about the legal and illegal properties of Ajmal across the globe. I challenge Ajmal if he dares to deny that," Dutta said.
"Ajmal took bribe from the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and fielded candidates at Mangaldoi and Guwahati, where the AIUDF has no base," he added.
Ajmal has already filed a defamation suit against Dutta for the allegations he levelled today.
AIUDF working president Aditya Langthasa dismissed the charges. "The Congress has gone on the backfoot after the first phase as it did not get much vote in Upper Assam and Barak Valley and so they are making baseless comments. Like north pole and south pole, AIUDF and BJP will never meet or have any alliance as we are ideologically different," Langthasa told The Telegraph.
The Congress will face a stiff challenge from the AIUDF in lower Assam where the ruling party seems to have recovered some lost ground.
