Assam delimitation: Opposition cries foul, CM says ‘some requests’ for changes met

Opposition parties in Assam on Friday criticised final report on delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies and termed it a ploy by ruling BJP to safeguard its political future.

y also maintained that Election Commission of India (ECI), which carried out process, has failed to dress objections placed before it by political parties as well as individuals and or organisations.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has, however, claimed that final notification has accepted some of suggestions placed by state government in line with demands of people.

In its final order, poll panel h kept intact number of assembly constituencies at 126 and Lok Sabha seats at 14, while revising nomenclature of one parliamentary and 19 assembly constituencies as mentioned in draft notification.

According to an ECI statement, 19 assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). One Lok Sabha and nine assembly constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs).

" ECI declared final notification sometime ago. We will have to go through it in details. We will come with our reaction day after tomorrow," Sarma said.

Sarma said state government h placed before ECI requests for change in names of some of constituencies, as demanded by people.

"Some of our requests have been met and some not," CM ded.

Leer of opposition in state assembly, Debabrata Saikia, said Congress has been protesting way in which delimitation exercise was carried out.

"re has not been equitable distribution of population in process. matter is being contested in Supreme Court also. We will have to wait and watch what ECI submits before apex court," he said.

Citing example of his own Nazira constituency, Congress leer said, “An area with a sizeable Muslim population from my constituency has been taken away. We believe this is a political tactic." " Congress party, in principle, is not opposed to delimitation process. But we have objection to process in which it was done. We h repeatedly urged ECI and government to first dress issues raised by people and n go forward with process," deputy leer of opposition in state assembly Rakibul Hussain said.

Hussain ded that Congress and its conglomerate of 11 or anti-BJP parties have alrey geared up to fight delimitation politically.

Raijor Dal working president Bhasco De Saikia claimed that ECI has accepted only some demands for changes in names of constituencies but core issues raised were ignored.

"Political parties and ors h raised before ECI that boundaries of constituencies where indigenous voters played a decisive role were proposed to be changed. But such demands were not dressed in final notification.

"It has been proven that ECI is not a neutral body anymore. We h expected that it will wait for Supreme Court case before publishing final notification, but it didn’t even wait for it," he ded.

Assam Jatiya Parish (AJP) president Lurinjyoti Gogoi claimed that constituencies have been re-drawn only with motive to ensure victory for BJP candidates.

" BJP knows that it will lose next year’s election. To safeguard its vote bank, it has carried out this delimitation process," he said.

Gogoi said party will wait for apex court’s verdict in case and depending on outcome, it will build up people’s movement against it.

All assembly and parliamentary constituencies in state were delimited (redrawn) based on 2001 Census.

last delimitation exercise in Assam took place in 1976 on basis of 1971 Census.

Many political parties have knocked on doors of Supreme Court against entire delimitation exercise.

ECI h on June 20 notified draft delimitation document with full bench of poll panel visiting Guwahati over three days from July 19 to hear objections and demands of political parties, organisations and individuals.

An ECI team h earlier visited Assam on March 26-28 and held interactions with political parties, public representatives, civil society members, social organisations, members of public and officers regarding delimitation exercise before coming out with draft.