Third front formed in Assam to contest upcoming General Elections

Guwahati, Feb 6 : A third political front has been formed in Assam with the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF), the Left parties and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) formally working out a seat sharing arrangement to fight the upcoming general elections.

At a meeting that ended late Wednesday, the AUDF, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the NCP agreed to have mutually acceptable candidates in eight of the 14 parliamentary seats.

“We shall meet again Thursday to finalise which parties would contest in the remaining six seats,” said AUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal.

Of the eight seats decided so far, the AUDF will contest in four, and the CPI and the NCP in two seats each.

The idea to form a third front was necessitated after the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) decided to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the parliamentary elections in Assam.

Prior to the AGP-BJP pre-poll tie up, there were talks going on for a grand alliance of all non-Congress and non-BJP formations in Assam.

“Our main aim is to challenge the Congress and the BJP in Assam,” CPI leader Promod Gogoi said after the meeting.

The AUDF is the main player in the third front with the party winning 10 of the 126 Assembly seats in the 2006 state elections. The AUDF, a minority based party, is the third party after the Congress and the AGP to have the maximum number of legislators in the state Assembly.

“We are surely going to make a mark in the coming elections,” Ajmal said.