AUDF rules out merger, offers outside support to UPA to ensure stability

By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,

Patna: Though Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) in its debut Lok Sabha elections won only one seat the votes it polled in nine seats it contested in Assam proved its potency in the state politics. As the party caused defeat of some Congress candidates, the news was making round that Congress will induct AUDF in the UPA and offer a ministerial berth to blunt the sharpness of this rising enemy.

But the AUDF chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal has put to rest the speculation by deciding to support Congress-led UPA from outside. Congress is its main rival in Assam.

Earlier it was said that Maulana Badruddin Ajmal will get ministerial berth in the new UPA government despite being the lone member of his party in the Lok Sabha as two senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Gulam Nabi Azad had been in touch with Maulana Badruddin since the results were out.

The AUDF president had himself admitted that several Congress top leaders contacted him but, he said, he would not join UPA, rather support it from outside for the greater interest of secularism and stability. “People want stable government and we hope that it will continue for five years. We will support it from outside,” he said.

He, however, made it clear that despite supporting UPA at centre his party’s anti-Congress and anti-BJP stand would remain.

He also clarified that though there is no pre-condition for support, the AUDF would demand sealing of the international border, issue of identity cards, solution of the flood and erosion problems and compensation and rehabilitation of the victims of Nellie massacre and Bongaigaon riot victims.

Ruling out the possibility of merging AUDF in Congress as Assam chief minister offered recently, he asked how a party with 10 MLAs could be asked to merge. He said confidently that in the next assembly election AUDF would win more than 30 seats.