AIDUF ‘hand in glove’ with BJP: Gogoi

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday said the AIUDF has entered into a “tacit understanding”with the BJP to defeat Congress candidates by engineering a split in votes and ensuring victory of the saffron party.

The remark comes a day after party chief Badruddin Ajmal announced that the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) would field candidates for polls only on 60 of the 126 seats in Assam Assembly.

“By deciding to field candidates in at least 60 constituencies where they have no chances of winning, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal has entered into a political game plan with the BJP, like it did in the last Parliamentary elections to defeat the Congress candidates,” Gogoi said.

In a statement issued here, the chief minister said people would see through the “game plan” of AIUDF and BJP who have relegated their ideological differences to the backburner in order to grab the power. “If AIUDF is for uniting Muslims to consolidate minority votes, the BJP is also propagating the Hindutva agenda of RSS and uniting Hindus.

“Both the parties have the same kind of strategy to polarise the electorate on religious lines. “AIUDF and BJP are two sides of the same coin,” Gogoi said. He asserted that the Congress would fight the Assembly polls alone. Congress, in power for the last 15 years in Assam, had won on 68 seats in last Assembly polls, while AIUDF and BJP secured victory on 18 and 6 seats, respectively.