The story so far: On June 20, the Election Commission (EC) released a draft proposal on the delimitation of the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam. The number of Assembly and Parliamentary seats remains unchanged at 126 and 14 but many constituencies were proposed to be reshaped and the number of reserved seats has been increased. This has led to a churning among various organisations and political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, with the fortunes of many MLAs likely to be affected.
How did the delimitation exercise come about?
Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and State Assembly constituencies based on a recent Census to ensure each seat has an almost equal number of voters. It is ideally carried out every few years after a Census by an independent Delimitation Commission formed under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act. Such panels were set up in 1952, 1962, and 1972 before the exercise was suspended in 1976 due to the family planning programme. Before the exercise of the next panel could be completed in 2008, the delimitation of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Nagaland was deferred due to “security risks” through presidential orders. In the case of Assam, many entities including the BJP wanted the delimitation done only after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was updated to weed out “illegal immigrants”. The Centre reconstituted the Delimitation Commission for the four north-eastern States and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on March 6, 2020. The EC notified the initiation of Assam’s delimitation on December 27, 2022, following which four districts were re-merged with the ones they were carved out of.
How would the proposal pan out?
If the draft is accepted, 24 Assembly seats would be reshaped and renamed while the number of reserved seats for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) would be increased from 16 to 19 and eight to nine respectively. The reserved seats would also be juggled – six each for the SCs and STs would become unreserved while nine ST and seven SC general seats would become reserved. The number of reserved Lok Sabha seats (two ST, one SC) would remain the same but Silchar would become reserved for SCs in place of Karimganj. The draft has erased the seats of Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary (Panery), ministers like Chandra Mohan Patowary (Dharmapur), and Parimal Suklabaidya (Dholai), ally Asom Gana Parishad MLAs Ramendra Narayan Kalita (West Guwahati) and Pradip Hazarika (Amguri), Congress MLAs Bharat Narah (Naoboicha), Sherman Ali Ahmed (Baghbar), and Rekibuddin Ahmed (Chaygaon), and All India United Democratic Front’s Aminul Islam (Dhing) and Rafikul Islam (Sarukhetri). Among the parliamentarians whose seats would have a different name and shape are Gaurav Gogoi of Congress (Kaliabor to Kaziranga) and the BJP’s Dilip Saikia (Mangaldoi to Darrang). Altogether, 39 MLAs and five MPs would lose their seats.
Why are many opposed to the proposal?
There have been protests across Assam since the EC announced the draft proposal. Ethnic groups such as the Ahoms are disappointed with the number of Assembly seats reduced from eastern Assam and increased in western Assam. Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi has questioned the EC for citing Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, to initiate the delimitation exercise. Section 8A only allows the reorientation of seats without any change in the total number. The use of the 2001 Census data has also raised hackles; Congress and AIUDF sniffed a sinister design especially after the EC used the 2011 Census for completing the exercise in Jammu and Kashmir, where the number of seats increased. AIUDF’s Badruddin Ajmal said Assam’s delimitation could have been carried out along with the rest of the country in 2026, instead of rushing it through ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. “Some seats have been reshaped to scatter the Muslims voters to ensure their representation in the Assembly and Parliament reduces,” he alleged. Other parties said delimitation should have waited for the exercise to update the NRC, to be completed. Meanwhile, people across the Bodoland Territorial Region are happy with the proposed increase of Assembly seats there from 16 to 19.
Can there be further changes?
The EC said the proposal was based on suggestions from 11 political parties and 71 other organisations although Congress skipped a meeting with the election panel team that visited Assam a few months ago. The EC has sought “suggestions and omissions” by July before visiting the State again for meeting various stakeholders. The AIUDF has threatened to go to court if the draft is accepted. The insistence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, whose Assembly seat Jalukbari would also be affected by the delimitation, to safeguard the rights of the indigenous people in view of “demographic changes” indicates that there may not be significant changes. He also advised political leaders not to worry about losing out if more seats are reserved for the SCs and STs in the “greater interest of the State”.
