Assam: AIUDF shifts candidates to Congress-ruled Rajasthan fearing poaching by BJP

The third and the last phase of Assembly elections was held on April 7 and the results will be declared on May 2.

According to media reports, the political parties in Assam are closely guarding their candidates anticipating a close contest.

AIUDF is part of Congress-led alliance which hopes to unseat the incumbent BJP government in Assam.

AIUDF’s organising secretary Aminul Islam, who is accompanying the candidates, claimed that the BJP will lose the election and may resort to "dirty tricks" and tried to influence the candidates.

“Likelihood of the BJP indulging in dirty tricks and trying to influence our candidates prompted the decision [of flying the candidates to Jaipur]. After the hectic poll campaign, our candidates wanted to undertake a pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif Dargah. Hence, that was also a reason for the trip,” he was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

“...they have only one option left... [and will try] to influence MLAs [members of legislative assembly] from other parties to switch sides with various inducements. That is why we need to be careful. We have already seen what happened after assembly polls in Goa and Manipur earlier,” Islam further stated. “We want to show that all our candidates are united,” he added.

He said that the party hasn't fixed a return date yet and they may return before May 2.

BJP has accused AIUDF of facilitating undocumented immigration of immigration to Assam from Bangladesh.

AIUDF, which has won ,13 of the 126 seats in 2016 Assam Assembly elections, enjoys influence among Bengali Muslims.

Congress and Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF) were also expected to move their candidates out of Assam. However, Congress leader Debabrata Saikia said that he has no idea if his party will move its candidates out of Assam.

An NDTV report said that the AIUDF candidates are staying at the Fairmont resort in the Congress-ruled Rajastha's capital city Jaipur. This is the same hotel where Congress had moved its candidates in July 2019 during a revolt by  leader Sachin Pilot and fears that majority of its MLAs may switch sides to BJP.