GUWAHATI: The minority-based All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s upcoming outreach programme would not impact the outcome of the forthcoming general elections in Assam.
Mr. Gandhi is scheduled to launch the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur on January 14. About 6,700 km across 111 districts of eastern and northeastern India would be covered during the march.
“Rahul Gandhi belongs to the Nehru family. Wherever he goes, people gather to see him as some kind of a hero but it will not translate into votes for the Congress,” AIUDF president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal said in western Assam’s Barpeta district on Friday, January 5.
Mr. Ajmal represents the Muslim-dominated Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency in western Assam. Dhubri adjoins the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat, where Muslims hold the card too.
The Congress and the AIUDF are seen as competitors for a large chunk of Muslim voters who are the deciding factor in at least four of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam .
The AIUDF chief’s “dismissive” remark has annoyed the Assam Congress unit.
‘AIUDF has no standing in Assam’
“Who is Badruddin Ajmal to even comment on Rahul Gandhi? He and his party have no standing in the politics of Assam politics as the people have realised the AIUDF is the B-team of the BJP and has transformed into a spokesperson of the saffron party,” vice-president and senior spokesperson of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Bobbeeta Sharma said.
“Since Congress has not included the AIUDF in the INDI Alliance, he is miffed with Rahul Gandhi. He visited our alliance partners with a begging bowl to be included in the INDIA but did not get any response as everybody is now aware of his true character,” she said.
The Congress leader said Mr. Ajmal “fooled” the minority people of Assam for a long time but his party would have to face the music in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The AIUDF won one seat in Assam in the 2019 parliamentary election, down from three in 2014. Congress maintained its 2014 tally of three seats five years later.
