Gogoi's red carpet to AUDF with rider

Guwahati, Aug 4 (UNI) After virtually branding the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) as 'untouchable', Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today categorically laid the red carpet for the minority political party, albeit with a rider.

'' If they (AUDF) want to come with us under my leadership there's no problem,'' Mr Gogoi told reporters here, a day after the Assam Pradesh Congress Commmittee (APCC) told the Congress top brass in New Delhi that it had no objection to the proposed merger of the AUDF with the Congress.

The rider, as Mr Gogoi indicated, was that the AUDF should come under his leadership.

Gogoi's softening of stand towards the AUDF comes in the backdrop of the speculations that the merger would strengthen the Congress' base in the state.

The AICC, which sought the Pradesh Congress's opinion on the matter, too appears to be strongly in favour of the merger with the AUDF which has managed to bag ten seats in its maiden appearance in the last Assembly elections in Assam.

Gogoi, known for his hardline stand against the AUDF, has been so far averse to the merger idea and both he and AUDF chief and perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal had gone on record taking potshots at each other.

While Gogoi's volte-face took many by surprise, the chief minister even went to charge Opposition leader Brindabon Goswami with manouvering to 'make Ajmal the chief minister'.

''It was Goswami who led a campaign to make Ajmal the chief minister, and now he is up against both me and the AUDF chief,'' Gogoi ridiculed the AGP president.

It is pertinent to note that a number of Congress heavyweights of the state had been lobbying in New Delhi to rope in the AUDF in a bid to retrieve the lost minority vote bank in the state and to relieve the government of the pressure from its sole and vital alliance partner, the Bodoland People's Progressive Front (Hagrama Mohilary faction).

UNI