The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) will support the proposed move to form a new regional party to oust the BJP government from Assam, party chief Badruddin Ajmal said on Friday.

Welcoming the recent announcement by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) president, Dipanka Kumar Nath, that the new party would be formed by next month, Ajmal said that the “dictatorial BJP-led governments at the Centre and the state had failed to fulfil people’s expectations”.

Talking to reporters during his two-day visit to Dhubri on Thursday evening, Ajmal said his party would support all secular forces to fight the BJP and help form a new alliance of all regional parties for the greater interest of Assam. “I was waiting for a new regional political party since long to fight the BJP. If the agitating students form the party, we will support them,” Ajmal added.

Earlier, former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the Congress would extend its support if a new regional party is formed by the students’ union.

Nath recently claimed that amid widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), there were suggestions from different quarters urging the AASU to explore the possibility of an alternative political force in the state, which goes to the polls next year.

In 1985, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), an ally of the BJP-led Sarbananda Sonowal government, was formed following six-year anti-foreigner movement. Former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was the founder of the party.

Singer Zubeen Garg also advocated the new party’s formation on several occasions.

“All political parties, be it the AGP, the Congress or the BJP, failed to fulfil the expectations of the people of Assam. Forming a new regional party is the need of the hour to protect the language and culture of the state. Both the state and the Centre neglected the sentiments of the people of the state,” the AASU president said.