An anti-influx forum in Assam has accused the ruling BJP-led NDA of compromising its stand on illegal immigration by “aligning” with Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF to ensure the victory of all three of its Rajya Sabha nominees from the state.

The NDA had the numbers to win only two of the three seats, but on March 5, the last day of filing nominations, three AIUDF MLAs — Nizamuddin Choudhury, Zakir Hussain Laskar and Karimuddin Barbhuiya — formally extended support to the third NDA-backed candidate, Pramod Boro of the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), an ally of the BJP.

With the Opposition not fielding any candidate, all three NDA nominees are set to be declared winners uncontested after 3pm on Monday, the deadline for withdrawal of nomination.

On Sunday, Upamanyu Hazarika, convener of the Prabrajan Virodhi Manch, flayed what he described as the NDA-AIUDF “alliance” for the Rajya Sabha polls. “The BJP and the AIUDF coming together for the Rajya Sabha election is an ominous portent for the indigenous people,” Hazarika said.

“The same BJP that built its political identity in Assam on the anti-foreigner agenda, and gained the support of the indigenous population, shows no compunction in joining hands with the AIUDF. The people had discarded the AGP and chosen the BJP only because the AGP was cultivating the Bangladeshi vote,” he added.

“It will soon be 50 years since the Assam Agitation began, and yet fewer than 5,000 foreigners have been deported to Bangladesh. The BJP government had informed Parliament in 2016 that an estimated 80 lakh Bangladeshis lived in Assam,” he said.

A BJP-led government has been in power in Assam since 2016. The AIUDF, founded by Ajmal, is frequently criticised by Right-Wing groups as a party espousing the concerns of immigrants of Bangladeshi origin.

The NDA accepting support from the AIUDF — a party the BJP has repeatedly targeted as communal and minority-centric — has drawn sharp criticism from the Congress-led Opposition bloc. The BJP, however, has claimed that it was the UPPL, an NDA constituent, and not the party itself that sought the support of the AIUDF MLAs.

All three AIUDF legislators, now suspended by their party for six years for anti-party activities, are likely to join the AGP, another NDA constituent.

Flagging the stalled NRC update process — pending since 2019 — and the non-implementation of Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord, which seeks safeguards for the indigenous population, Hazarika said chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has in the past two years given a “new twist” to the foreigner issue by saying that delimitation of constituencies “is the answer, not NRC”.

“Furthermore, his government has conducted evictions in a few forest, PGR and VGR areas to gain indigenous support, but none of these measures has forced Bangladeshis to leave Assam. They simply shift from one place to another,” he said.

“Assam’s main problem is not the Bangladeshi, but its leaders. All major political parties have indigenous origins, yet these leaders do not hesitate to take Bangladeshi support to stay in or come to power. Until we produce leaders who do not depend on politics for their livelihood and identity, the foreigners issue will never be resolved,” Hazarika said.