Delimitation in Assam: ECI delegation meets political parties and other stakeholders; Cong skips meeting

BJP leader and Assam Minister Ashok Singhal said that seats in Upper Assam should not be decreased because the population is less there

A delegation of the Election Commission of India (ECI) led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar met representatives of political parties of Assam on Monday to discuss the ongoing delimitation process of constituencies ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
BJP leader and Assam Minister Ashok Singhal said that seats in Upper Assam should not be decreased because the population is less there. AGP leader and Assam Minister Atul Bora said delimitation is the last hope to save the identity of the indigenous people. Opposition Congress decided to boycott the meeting.
“The deliberation was good. We have forwarded our suggestions and requests. They (ECI team) gave us a patient hearing and I feel that they will take a judicious decision on our submission,” Assam Minister and BJP leader Ashok Singhal said speaking to the media after the meeting.
Speaking about delimitation in Upper Assam, Ashok Singhal said, “Our first point is that in Upper Assam districts where the population growth is less and the districts which have adhered to the Population Control Policy of the country, they should not be penalized by decreasing their seats in the assembly. If it is decreased people will think that abiding the by government policies, following the best practices is detrimental in the future. That may create situation where people may not follow the government policies properly. We also raised the point that Assam is represented by lot of ethnic communities, ST communities, different castes. So to give voice to all the castes and communities, we must create constituencies, if required, in a district. I think by and large there will be some changes. It cannot remain the same. Somewhere the constituencies will get rationalized. We wish that it will be completed as soon as possible.”
AGP president and Assam minister Atul Bora said that delimitation is the last hope for the state as far as safeguarding the identity of the indigenous people is concerned. “Clause 6 of Assam Accord promised to the people of Assam that there would be constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards so that the rights of the indigenous are protected. We all know as to what happened to the NRC. This (delimitation) is our last hope for protecting the rights of the indigenous.
The delimitation exercise is being carried out on the basis of the 2001 census. But as you all know that in Upper Assam-Golaghat, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Tinsukia in these districts population growth is less, but it is quite higher in Dhubri, bongaigaon, Nagaon, barpeta, Darrang. So, if delimitation is done on the basis of growth it will be injustice. These districts have not complied to the National Birth Control policy resulting in the abnormal increase (in population). In that case, if delimitation is done on the basis of the 2001 census, then definitely the number of constituencies in Upper Assam will decrease. So we advocated for 30% variation.”

Assam TMC president Ripun Bora said, “We have raised 7 points in our memorandum to the ECI. The Election Commission has given a patient hearing to us and before taking our memorandum, they asked us to elaborate on our 7 points. After our explanation, they have given us appropriate reply.”
“Firstly we said about deferring the delimitation process. Secondly we said that the delimitation must be carried out on the basis of the latest census. Since the 2021 census is yet to be published, then the 2011 census must be taken into account. But they are considering the 2001 census. We objected to it. We also demanded that the number of constituencies must be increased since the number of seats were increased to the existing 126 in the first delimitation carried out in 1972. But over these years, population has increased but the number of seats have remained to be the same. Lastly, we also backed for deferring the exercise since delimitation will be carried out across the nation in 2026 and pointed out that there is no urgency, so why waste so much of energy and public money,” Bora added.
The AIUDF expressed it’s stiff opposition to the conduct of the delimitation exercise. AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam speaking to Northeast Live said, “We raised the point that since the last 52 years we do not have any delimitation, that means our assembly seats are 126 and parliamentary seats are 14. It has remained the same. I don’t know what is the necessity of this delimitation process, because in 2026 nationwide delimitation is going to take place. I think this is all happening with the purpose of the BJP, it is a BJP game; they are trying to play. So we are opposing it very clearly.”
Congress decided to boycott the meeting with the ECI delegation and in all likelihood will be handing over a memorandum only without taking part in deliberation over the delimitation process. Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhupen Bora informed that the decision was taken in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting held yesterday.
Bora said that the Congress would get very less time to speak as just 3 hours was given to 11 political parties including the Congress. Besides, the Congress leader said that the grand old party had also failed to receive appropriate response from the ECI as far as previous memorandums (submitted on January 4, February 8 and March 22) are concerned.

The EC had started the process of redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in the state on December 27, 2022, after being asked by the government in November. The delimitation is being carried out in the state for the first time since 1976 and is based on the population as in the 2001 Census.

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