The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a constituent of the BJP-led NDA government in Assam, has fielded 13 Muslim candidates from the 26 seats it is contesting in the April 9 Assembly elections, prompting a leading anti-influx organisation to accuse the ruling alliance of compromising its stand on illegal immigration to garner more votes.

Two former All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLAs — Zakir Hussain Laskar and Karim Uddin Barbhuiya — are among the 13 candidates announced on Thursday night.

The BJP, which has been heading the ruling coalition in the state since 2016, has not nominated even a single Muslim candidate in its first list of 88 nominees released on Thursday morning.

Reacting to the development, Upamanyu Hazarika, convener of Prabrajan Virodhi Manch, said: “There’s no ideology, only mercenary politics.”

“The BJP, which adopts a pro-indigenous and anti-Bangladeshi migrant stand, has encouraged its NDA ally, the AGP, to field defectors from the AIUDF and grab the migrant Muslim vote. It is because of such self-serving politics that less than 5,000 foreigners have been deported to Bangladesh in the last 40 years,” Hazarika said.

The two parties were “criticised” because the AGP and the BJP had been strident critics of the AIUDF for “espousing” the case of the migrant Miya community — Bengali-speaking Muslims with roots in Bangladesh.

The BJP also frequently attacks the Opposition Congress for slowly turning the party into a party of illegal migrants. Out of the 87 candidates announced by the Congress till Thursday, 20 are Muslims.

A BJP member had said on Thursday that Muslim ticket aspirants were “directed” to apply from the AGP. The BJP is fighting the polls in alliance with the AGP and the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF).

The AGP, formed in the immediate aftermath of the six-year-long anti-foreigners agitation in the state from 1979, had headed the state government twice in the 80s and the 90s.

Hazaika said: “The AGP was formed to fulfil the aims of the Assam agitation — to safeguard the state’s indigenous population and throw out the foreigners. It is now the NDA constituent to attract migrant Muslim votes. AGP leaders, in sole pursuit of personal gain, have betrayed the people of Assam, including the 855 martyrs of the Assam agitation.”

Other Muslim candidates to secure AGP tickets included Khalilur Rahman, Sahabuddin Mazumdar, Ikbal Hussain, Zabed Islam and Abdul Rahim.