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Congress calls for united opposition against BJP in 2024; AIUDF left out
Congress has organised a two-day meeting starting Thursday where senior All Indian Congress Committee (AICC) leaders, including state party in-charge Jitendra Singh, will be present to discuss plans for an anti-BJP allianc
In a bid to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress is trying to unite smaller national and regional parties. In Assam, the Congress has organised a two-day meeting starting Thursday where senior All Indian Congress Committee (AICC) leaders, including state party in-charge Jitendra Singh, will be present to discuss plans for an anti-BJP alliance.
According to party officials, Singh will visit Guwahati on Thursday to oversee preparations of the state Congress for next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
The meeting will have leaders from 8-10 other parties, including Raijor Dal, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Assam Jatiya Parishad. The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), one of the biggest opposition parties in the state, has however been kept out while the Aam Admi Party (AAP), which was invited to join, won’t be taking part in it, they said.
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“We will first have a meeting where views of party leaders from 11 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam will be discussed. At present, there will be no discussion on the other three seats, which we won in 2019,” said Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah.
“That will be followed by discussions with the other parties to get their views on an alliance. This meeting will be a preliminary one and we are unlikely to arrive at any final solutions,” he added.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won nine seats in Assam, Congress bagged three and one each was won by AIUDF and an Independent candidate.
During the 2021 assembly elections, Congress formed a 10-party alliance to take on the BJP and its allies in which the BJP his alliance partners came to power with 75 (BJP 60, Asom Gana Parishad-9 and United People’s Party Liberal-6) out of 126 seats, and the Congress and its allies won 41 (Congress-29, AIUDF-16, Bodoland Peoples’ Front-4, CPM-1, Raijor Dal-1).
However, soon after the elections, Congress and the AIUDF parted ways accusing each other of being hand in glove with the BJP. The Bodoland Peoples’ Front also left the Congress-led alliance.
“As of now, we don’t have any alliance with Congress, but we also want opposition parties to unite against BJP ahead of 2024 polls. We are already in talks with several national parties like Janata Dal (United) and Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha polls,” said Md Aminul Islam, organising secretary of AIUDF.
He added, “Many Assam Congress office-bearers and most MLAs of the party are in the pockets of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. He is the one who doesn’t want Congress and AIUDF to come together as the secular votes will get divided.”
Islam accused the Congress leaders of the state of trying to finish off AIUDF in Assam. “Unfortunately, Congress leaders are supporting Sarma,” he said, adding that they will wait for directions from Congress leadership in New Delhi to take a call on an all-party anti-BJP alliance for the next general elections.
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“We also want a united opposition. But such decisions should be first taken at the national level. Since we didn’t get any directions from our party leadership and most of our state leaders were busy with prior engagements, AAP decided to abstain from the meeting organised by Congress,” said AAP Assam’s unit chief Bhaben Choudhury.
Reacting to this, Assam BJP president Bhabesh Kalita said that the Congress is suffering from frustration and depression. The people of Assam have already rejected them, and they stand no chance in 2024, he said.
“It is also known that despite their outward differences, Congress and AIUDF share an unstated understanding. People in Assam are happy with the policies of the BJP governments at the Centre and the state. We and our allies will win at least 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state,” Kalita added.
