Tacit AIUDF-BJP deal to split Congress vote in Assam: Gogoi

The AIUDF of Badruddin Ajmal was hand-in-glove with the BJP in its bid to engineer a split in Congress votes through polarisation and thus ensure a victory for the BJP in the upcoming assembly polls in Assam, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said on Sunday.

Gogoi made the remark a day after the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) said it will contest 60 seats of the total 126 in the polls, and leave the rest for "secular and other like-minded" parties to stop the BJP from coming to power in Assam.

Gogoi accused Ajmal of being hand-in-glove with the BJP by deciding to field candidates in constituencies where the party has no chances of winning.

"The AIUDF by deciding to contest in 60 seats has entered into a tacit understanding with the BJP to defeat the Congress candidates by engineering a split in votes and ensuring the victory of the saffron party.

"By deciding to field candidates in 60 constituencies where they have no chances of winning, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal has entered into a political game plan with the BJP, like they did in the last parliamentary elections to defeat the Congress candidates," he said.

Gogoi said people would see through their game plan to grab power by relegating their ideological differences to the backburner.

"If the AIUDF is for uniting Muslims to consolidate minority votes, the BJP is also propagating the Hindutva agenda of the RSS and uniting Hindus.

"Both the parties have the same kind of strategy to polarise the electorate on religious lines. The AIUDF and the BJP are two sides of the same coin," Gogoi said.

He reiterated that the Congress was well poised to fight the polls alone.

AIUDF organisational secretary Aminul Islam on Saturday said the party was going to contest 60 seats, and "the rest 66 seats, we are leaving to secular and other like-minded parties to stop the BJP in Assam".