AUDF, CPM in tug-of-war over Silchar seat

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Silchar, March 13: The litmus test of unity for Assam’s third front, cobbled up to fight the Congress and AGP-led alliances in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, began ominously today with a battle brewing between two of its constituents over Silchar constituency.

Both the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), the leading party, and the CPM are determined to field candidates from Silchar, with the minority front’s chairman, Badruddin Ajmal, declaring himself as the “fittest” to take on the Congress and the BJP.

Ajmal’s announcement came after the CPM’s central committee in New Delhi announced last week that on the basis of the arrangement chalked out by the third front in the state, it has nominated Dipak Bhattacharjee as its candidate for the Silchar seat.

Bhattacharjee is a former MLA from Hailakandi.

Ajmal claimed over phone from Guwahati today he was the fittest candidate from Silchar to fight both the Congress and the BJP.

“We have already given the Tezpur seat on a platter to the CPM. So now it is the turn of the CPM leaders to consider vacating the Silchar seat to make way for the AUDF nominee to become the unanimous candidate of the third front,” Ajmal said.

The CPM secretary for Cachar-Hailakandi districts, Samiran Acharjee, on the other hand, said it would be difficult for his party to get the candidature of Bhattacharjee rescinded as his nomination from Silchar seat had already been cleared by the party’s central committee.

The AUDF’s insistence to field Ajmal from Silchar along with Dhubri appears to have queered the pitch for the CPM.

Ajmal, however, hoped that the CPM would see reason and withdraw Bhattacharjee’s candidature in the greater cause of waging a common fight for development of the backward Cachar area and a crusade against the “rampant corruption by the Congress overlords and a section of officials in the district”.

He said he would soon meet the third front leaders — the other constituents are the CPI, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front — and the CPM, in Guwahati to arrive at a consensus on his nomination from Silchar.

The final list of the third front candidates will be released on March 18, Ajmal added. THE TELEGRAPH