The relation between Congress and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal on Wednesday hit a roadblock, with the All India Congress Committee taking an unusual step of issuing a formal statement of calling Ajmal BJP‘s “mouthpiece” and an ally of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, even as it compared AIUDF with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM.

The AICC statement, after the latest attack by Ajmal on Assam Congress leaders, marks, on the face of it, a clear break of Congress from AIUDF, which made a mark in Assam politics by hijacking a section of the traditional Congress base among the Muslim community before forcing the party to buy peace with AIUDF by inking an alliance in the last assembly elections only to see post-poll bickering between the two.

AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh rejected the latest charge of Ajmal that senior Assam Congress leaders were having clandestine ties with Sarma. Calling Ajmal’s remarks “most unacceptable”, “totally bogus” and “blatantly defamatory”, Ramesh said “the decision on the Congress-AIUDF alliance in the last assembly polls, though not an easy one to take for Congress”, was taken in the belief that Ajmal will be “a consistent and reliable partner” who would “strengthen secular forces”. “After the election results, it became clear that Ajmal had worked out an understanding with the CM of Assam.”