Muslim Politics in Assam: The Case of AIUDF

Abstract

All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) was formed in 2005 as Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF). It represents Muslim politics in contemporary Assam. In the 2006 and 2011 Assam Assembly elections (AAE), AIUDF showed continuous success, though it could not gain substantially in the communally polarized 2016 Assembly elections. With this backdrop, the present article is an attempt to understand contemporary Muslim politics in Assam through AIUDF. It argues that AIUDF was an attempt by a group of Muslim leaders in Assam, mainly from Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (Jamiat), to share power in the name of Muslims and the party was made relevant in Assam politics by Congress through its soft Hindutva politics. It also argues that increasing dominance of AIUDF in Assam elections created ground for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to grow and to form government in 2016.