The Congress may be talking about a grand alliance nationally to take on the BJP, but in Assam, where the BJP ended the party’s uninterrupted 15-year-rule, it could decide against a tie-up with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), led by Badruddin Ajmal.
Speaking with The Hindu , former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who was recently appointed the Congress general secretary in charge of Assam, said that right now, there was no plan on any alliance. “The committee on alliance will discuss the issue but right now there is no plan of any alliance ... Earlier, we were confident of 11 seats [out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam] but now we are confident on all the 14 seats,” he said when asked about the possibility of a Congress-AIUDF alliance before the Lok Sabha poll.
The Congress leader, however, said the party was building “social alliances” with every group that have been affected by the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“Each and every social group in Assam is affected by the NRC. Those 40 lakh people who have been left out of the NRC include ethnic Assamese, indigenous Muslims, Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims, Gurkhas, people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. All these people are worried and angry,” Mr. Rawat said.
He said the party had set up “help centres” across the State to assist people with documentation work in tracing their legacy data. “They are finding our approach quite reasonable. We are saying whoever is a genuine Indian citizen should find a place in the NRC... All groups are coming to our help centres. Right now, people have more questions for the BJP and its ally AGP [Asom Gana Parishad] regarding the NRC,” he said.
Without solutions
The Congress leader said the people of Assam had now “realised that the BJP played with their emotions by raising sensitive issues but offered no solutions”.
“People know that the NRC was a Congress initiative that was an Assam-based solution to deal with large-scale illegal immigration. But the BJP politicised it and that has created more problems for the people,” Mr. Rawat said.
The Congress leader also said that unlike the BJP in Assam, where only Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are “visible”, the Congress would approach the elections under a “collective leadership”.
He said the BJP was facing a dual power centre, with Mr. Sarma (who had switched from the Congress to the BJP in August 2015) emerging as a key contender for the top post.
“It is difficult to expect Sarma to be the number 2 for a long time and the BJP has enough explosive material in it’s hands,” Mr. Rawat said.
“There is a sense within the Congress that we will have to contest the elections with one common purpose. So right from Mr. Tarun Gogoi [former Chief Minister] to an ordinary worker, everyone is working together as a team,” he added.
