The attempted Congress –AIUDF seat arrangement at the behest of a section of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) fell through as the Congress today declared the strongest candidates in the last four seats including that of AIUDF supremo Badaruddin Ajmal.
The Congress party got the actual picture only last night when they had realized that at Assam level a section of the Congressmen tried to leverage from AIUDF party boss Badaruddin Ajmal's request to give soft candidates at Dhubri.
This morning the Congress Election Committee(CEC) came back strongly and announced that Abu Taher Beparim a former MLA from Golokganj to fight against Badaruddin Ajmal, sending the strong signal that there was no alliance.
The source close to Congress informed that Rakibul Hussain, Ripun Bora and Pradyut Bardoloi secretly met Ajmal and planned seat arrangements to secure Koliabor and Nagaon and in return Dhubri for AIUDF.
But alarmed over this development, leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia took a strong position. When Saikia and his faction realized that AICC had no such signal for any seat-sharing they hardened the stand.
As a result, the planned soft candidate against Ajmal and in Barpeta constituency was thrown out of the window and sitting MLA Abdul Khaleq and former MLA Abu Taher Bepari was fielded.
However, the BJP went over the board to announce that that AIUDF and Congress had secured a deal. This prompted Congress leader like Bihuti Ranjan Barthakur to even resign from Congress.
However, this series of events have put Congress in an advantageous position in Koliabor, Mangadoi and Nagaon constituency as there are no AIUDF candidates allowing Muslim votes to consolidate.
