With discontent brewing in Assam’s primarily Bengali-speaking Barak Valley against the Election Commission of India’s (EC) draft delimitation proposal for the state, several political parties, including the Congress and the AIUDF, have called a bandh on Tuesday to protest against the plan to reduce the number of Assembly seats in the valley. Last week, the ECI had published a draft proposal for delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies in Assam as part of the first delimitation exercise in the state since 1976. In the draft, the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies remain the same — 14 and 126, respectively — but there are proposed changes in boundaries and names, and addition of new constituencies in some areas and reduction in others. The draft proposes reducing the number of Assembly constituencies from 15 to 13 in the three districts of Barak Valley — Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj — which has sparked protests by political leaders in the region. In a public meeting in Karimganj on Monday, Congress leader and MLA from North Karimganj seat, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, said that voter population in the valley has increased from 17 lakh in 1976 to 45 lakh in 2021 state elections. But despite the rise in population, two seats have been reduced, he said. Referring to the 1961 language movement against the state government's decision to make Assamese the sole official language of the state, he said, “This bias against Barak and the disregard to our interests is the reason we are holding this meeting.. In the 1961 language movement, we fought for our rights and got our rights. We will fight for our rights now, too.” #WATCH | Assam: Police detained protesters in Karimganj who were protesting against the proposed delimitation draft by the Election Commission of India (ECI) Several organisations and political parties have called for a 12-hour bandh in Barak Valley, Cachar, Karimganj and… pic.twitter.com/acAUqXhDcU — ANI (@ANI) June 27, 2023 AIUDF district committees in all three districts of the valley had met on Sunday and decided to call a Barak Valley bandh on June 27. Calling the reduction in seats “unscientific and unethical”, AIUDF leader and Sonai MLA, Karim Uddin Barbhuiya, stated, “The ECI should rethink its decision and keep the number of seats in Barak Valley as it is.” The bandh calls also come following assertion by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma that the EC's proposal protects the interests of “indigenous people of Assam”. Hitting back, Trinamool Congress leader Sushmita Dev said that through his statements, Sarma has put a “big question mark on the EC's neutrality”. Dev said: “He is essentially saying it is a political exercise. Delimitation is supposed to reflect the population… By saying you are safeguarding one community, you are [also] saying that you are disempowering another community.” She also criticised the proposal to make Silchar a reserved Lok Sabha for Scheduled Caste candidates. “There are only two Lok Sabha seats in the valley — Silchar and Karimganj — and given the demography, it is likely that a minority candidate will be elected [in Karimganj]. So Silchar was the only seat for non-SC Hindu Bengalis,” she said. Ahead of the bandh calls, police on Monday conducted flag marches in Silchar and Badarpur and other parts of the valley “as a confidence-building measure” for people to “thwart bandh called by a few organizations and political parties”.
