After assembly poll debacle, Congress-AIUDF inch close to deal for RS election

After parting ways following the failure of their alliance to come to power in Assam last year, the opposition Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) are inching closer to an agreement for the coming Rajya Sabha polls scheduled on March 31.

Two Rajya Sabha seats from Assam, held by Congress’s Ripun Bora and Ranee Narah, are up for grabs and both the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition and opposition camps are jostling for them.

The state has a total of seven Rajya Sabha seats. Besides the two held by Bora and Narah, three are with BJP– Sarbananda Sonowal, Bhubaneswar Kalita and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, one with BJP’s ally Asom Gana Parishad (Birendra Prasad Baishya) and one with Anchalik Gana Morcha (Ajit Kumar Bhuyan).

Last week, AIUDF and Congress leaders held discussions in Delhi on a possible agreement between both parties to corner one of the two seats. The state Congress leadership was kept out of the deliberations as AIUDF felt that they couldn’t be trusted to take a final call on the issue.

“There’s no official deal yet, but both sides had discussions on the possibility of AIUDF leaving one seat for Congress and supporting their candidate this time and when another seat falls vacant in future they will offer similar support to our candidate,” AIUDF general secretary Haider Hussain Bora said.

“A final call on such an agreement would be taken after a meeting between our president Badruddin Ajmal and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Since both leaders are busy, they haven’t been able to meet yet. But we expect it to take place in the next few days,” he said.

This is the first attempt by both parties to join hands after parting ways last year after the assembly polls. Congress and AIUDF were part of a 10-party-alliance for the polls in a bid to prevent Bharatiya Janata Party from retaining power. The alliance got 50 seats (Congress 29, AIUDF 16, Bodoland Peoples’ Front 4 and CPI (M) 1) while BJP and allies won 75 seats of the total 126.

A party or alliance needs at least 43 votes to win one Rajya Sabha seat in Assam. At present Congress and opposition parties have 43 votes while BJP and its allies have 82 votes.

“We expect to get confirmation of our candidate any day now and file nominations by March 21. For this election, we have asked help from the AIUDF to put up a strong fight against BJP and its allies and wrest one seat from them,” said Congress state president Bhupen Kumar Borah.

“I won’t be able to say what discussions took place between AIUDF and our leaders at Delhi as I wasn’t privy to that. But since we are the biggest opposition party, we will be putting up a candidate and request AIUDF to vote for his/her win,” he added.

Congress Assam unit has sent names of five potential candidates to the party high command for the Rajya Sabha polls. Besides Bora and Narah, whose tenures end on April 2, Bobbeeta Sharma, Dwijen Sarma and Arun Datta Mazumdar are the others in fray to get the party’s nod.

“Our candidates for both seats will file nomination papers on March 21. We are confident of winning both the seats,” BJP Assam president Bhabesh Kalita said on Thursday.

BJP and its allies will hold a press meet next week to declare names of their candidates. According to people aware of the matter, the saffron party has recommended names of three potential candidates to the party high command for tickets to one of the two seats. The other seat might be left to BJP’s ruling partner United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL).