The BJP said it is Badruddin Ajmal's party that will be the main opponent in Assam. (File)
With just days to go for elections to begin in Assam, the ruling BJP has said it is Badruddin Ajmal's All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) that will be the main opponent of the party and not the Congress. The put-down came from BJP's go-to man for the northeast and Assam cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who acknowledged that Mr Ajmal, a Lok Sabha MP, "will always remain a factor" in the three-phased Assam polls.
"In the polls, there will be a fight between the BJP and Congress-AIUDF. The regional parties have not been able to reach out to the people as they should have. Ajmal is always a factor given the area Assam is. He is a threat to the culture and civilisation," Mr Sarma said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, BJP national vice president and party's in-charge for Assam Baijayant Jay Panda said, "Now the Congress have tied up with the AIUDF and it talks of identity politics. I think Congress is talking about its own survival. They should focus in Congress bachao, not Assam bachao. Late Tarun Gogoi used to shun like the plague the AIUDF and Ajmal, for being communal. BJP stands for Indianness. We are on the right side."
Assam will vote for a new government in over three phases starting March 27 and results on May 2. The state is expected to see a spirited fight this time between the ruling BJP, battling resentment over issues like the centre's new citizenship law, and the alliance between the Congress and AIUDF. Making it a three-cornered fight are a clutch of new parties born out of the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The BJP has been training its guns at the AIUDF for months ahead of the elections. Last month, controversial BJP MP Tejasvi Surya compared the AIUDF, which counts a large number of Muslims among supporters, to the Mughals, while addressing a youth rally in Dibrugarh district.
"Congress is the stooge of (AIUDF chief) Badruddin Ajmal, who is a representative of the Mughals. We have to discard them... drive them out to create a new Assam," he said.