Move to form third front a cause of worry for AICC

Guwahati, Jun 10 (UNI) As the minority political parties and organizations are confabulating in New Delhi today exploring possibility of formation of a new front of like-minded minority groups with a focus on coming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, leaders of Assam Pradesh Congress are awaiting the outcome of the meeting anxiously.

The move to form a new front under the aegis of Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari and the plan to include Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), which wrested eight Assembly seats from Congress in recent Assam election, has been a cause of worry for the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

The AICC beleives that the AUDF was responsible for reduction of Congress strength in Assam assembly from 71 to 53 seats. Hence a section of the AICC leadership is in favour of putting pressure on Assam state Congress unit to patch up with AUDF and its president Badaruddin Ajmal. A section of leaders from the state Congress too have been trying to patch-up with AUDF aapprehending that the latter might see the Congress lose a few Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2009 parliamentary polls.

However, the faction of Assam Congress close to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is not in favour of giving too much importance to the AUDF, which, they think, is not going to have a long-term impact in the Congress bastion among religious minorities in Assam.

A delegation of minority leaders of Assam Congress recently went to New Delhi to impress upon the AICC leadership that giving 'undue' importance to AUDF would erode Congress ground among the mainstream Assamese people in Assam in favour of the BJP. They have pitched their argument on the reality that Congress, which won 53 seats in the last Assam Assembly polls, bagged 22 seats in Upper Assam areas having dominant presence of Assamese speaking ethnic groups and tea tribes. The Upper Assam backed Congress to the hilt in the 2001 Assembly polls too much to the loss of the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).

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