A depleted Congress in the north-eastern state of Assam is staring at an uphill task of reviving its fortunes in the state where it was decimated in the last assembly elections. Furthermore, the untimely death of Tarun Gogoi, former CM of Assam has come as another setback to the ambitions of the party. Gogoi’s death has all but curtailed the possibility of a Congress-led Grand Alliance where the party was looking to partner up with Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). However, in one way or another, it could be a piece of good news for Congress as the party was supposedly heading towards its doom by colluding with AIUDF.
Read more: Tarun Gogoi’s decision to ally with Ajmal is going to be the end of Gogoi dynasty in Assam Congress
A former Chief Minister and a stalwart Congress leader with a massive foothold in party affairs of the state, Tarun Gogoi, before his unfortunate death, had been putting all his weight behind the fruition of a Congress-AIUDF alliance in Assam. As reported by TFI earlier, Gogoi had been pushing for the said alliance since 2015. As a result, Congress and the AIUDF are already fighting the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) elections slated for early next month as allies. However, no concrete news has come out yet suggesting that an alliance has been forged for the assembly elections.
The next assembly elections expected to be held in April 2021is extremely pivotal for Congress. The party, which has ruled Assam for a major part of the 68 years since elections were first held in 1952, is facing a grave identity crisis at present. After winning only 26 seats out of 126 in the last assembly elections, Congress faced a mass exodus of its popular leaders who switched camps and majorly went to BJP.
AIUDF chief and Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri – BadruddinAjmal has been known for his anti-India rhetorics and activities. And thus if Congress had sided with him in the state, a general perception that already is building around the grand old party that it supports anti-national forces would have only been strengthened.
Read more: ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans raised in Assam for Badruddin Ajmal, Himanta slams Congress, AIUDF
As seen in the just concluded Bihar elections, the Muslims gave cold-shoulder to Congress and showed that it could no longer get its way around with low-life appeasement politics. Even if Congress paired up with AIUDF in the state, the Muslim voters would not have voted for it.
TFI had earlier done an op-ed on how the Muslim regional parties are rising around the country and these parties have no hesitation in declaring themselves as a pro-Muslim party.
From Indian Union Muslim League in Kerala to AIMIM in Hyderabad to AIUDF in Assam—all the three parties cater exclusively to the Muslim vote bank. Congress and Gogoi wanted to make the bed with such parties–however, other than few crumbs of votes, and a bountiful of humiliation nothing good was ever going to come Congress’ way that could resurrect its fortunes in the state.
Read more: Muslim League, AIMIM and AIUDF – The rise of Muslim politics in India and their backend dealing
These communal parties want to create a Muslim League-Esque front which was disbanded after the Independence of the country to create a pan-India Muslim front that can directly fight against the mainstream parties. And remember, despite Congress’ pathetic showing in the elections around the country, it is still a mainstream party, and inadvertently, the likes of BadruddinAjmal would have come around to gulp down congress, just the way Amoeba engulfs its food.