Over 780 responses in, EC starts public hearings on Assam delimitation draft

In image : Day 1 of Election Commission’s public hearings on #AssamDelimitation proposal pic.twitter.com/bOP8mZvIF2

— Spokesperson ECI (@SpokespersonECI) July 19, 2023

According to the Assam CEO office, the representations — suggestions and objections — ranged from some residents appreciating the fact that their village had been included in a reserved constituency to some politicians from opposition parties calling for the delimitation exercise to be stopped.

The EC had on June 20 published the draft delimitation proposal and sought suggestions and objections from the people until July 11.

On Wednesday, the three-member panel, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel began their visit to Assam. The Commission will hold public hearings in Guwahati for stakeholders from across the state as part of the consultative process for delimitation, it stated.

The EC team met representatives of the public, political parties and community groups from Udalgiri, Kamrup (M) and Karbi Anglong districts, among others.

Among representations received was one from Congress MLA from Boko, Nandita Das, who said the exercise should be carried out by a Delimitation Commission, as opposed to the Election Commission, and should be based on the 2011 Census after the final National Register of Citizens was published. She also asked the delimitation exercise to be “revoked”, as per a compilation of representations released by the Assam Chief Electoral Officer.

Several representations mentioned in the compilation released by Assam CEO office called for particular villages to be shifted from one constituency to another for “public convenience” and maintaining contiguity. Some representations “welcomed” the inclusion of particular villages in a reserved constituency, while some others called for the entire process to be stopped.

Among others, the Udalgiri District Bar Association “prayed that delimitation may be deferred till 2026”; the International Koch Rajbongshi Association president expressed “opposition towards the current delimitation”; and the chairman of the Bodoland Realisation Forum expressed “objection against the delimitation exercise”.

Last week, 10 Opposition politicians moved the Supreme Court challenging the methodology adopted for the delimitation exercise.

The EC began the process in December 2022 after the government wrote to it to start the delimitation process. Assam had last seen delimitation of constituencies in 1976, having been left out of the last national delimitation exercise in 2002 due to security risks.

What the EC draft says

The number of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Assam would remain 126 and 14, respectively, as Articles 170 and 82 of the Constitution state that the number of seats should not be altered until the first Census after 2026 is published. The draft delimitation, based on 2001 Census as per the Constitution, increased the number of Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes from 16 to 19, and for Scheduled Castes from eight to nine. The draft also reserved two of Assam’s 14 Lok Sabha seats for STs and one for SCs.