Election Commission Panel Begins Visit To Assam For Public Hearings On Delimitation Draft

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has begun a three-day visit to Assam to conduct public hearings on the draft delimitation proposals for Assembly and Parliament constituencies in the state.

The Commission has received over 780 representations regarding the draft delimitation proposal.

The representations received by the Assam CEO office include a range of suggestions and objections. Some residents expressed appreciation for their village being included in a reserved constituency, while politicians from opposition parties called for the delimitation exercise to be halted.

The EC had published the draft delimitation proposal on June 20 and invited suggestions and objections from the public, with July 11 as a deadline.

The visit to Assam by the three-member panel, consisting of Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, began on Wednesday (July 19). The Commission has announced that public hearings will be held in Guwahati to gather input from stakeholders across the state as part of the consultative process for delimitation.

During their visit, the EC team met with representatives from various districts including Udalgiri, Kamrup (M), and Karbi Anglong. These representatives included members of the public, political parties, and community groups.

Among the representations received during the visit was one from Congress MLA Nandita Das, representing Boko. Das expressed the view that the delimitation exercise should be conducted by a Delimitation Commission rather than the Election Commission.

She also suggested that the exercise should be based on the 2011 Census after the final National Register of Citizens was published. In a compilation of representations released by the Assam Chief Electoral Officer, Das also called for the revocation of the delimitation exercise.

The compilation of representations released by the Assam CEO office highlighted various requests and opinions. Some representations called for specific villages to be shifted from one constituency to another for the sake of public convenience and maintaining contiguity. Others expressed approval for the inclusion of particular villages in a reserved constituency.

However, there were also calls for the entire delimitation process to be halted.

The Udalgiri District Bar Association requested that the delimitation be postponed until 2026. The president of the International Koch Rajbongshi Association expressed opposition to the current delimitation, while the chairman of the Bodoland Realisation Forum objected to the delimitation exercise.

A group of 10 Opposition politicians recently filed a petition with the Supreme Court, challenging the methodology used for the delimitation exercise.

In December 2022, the Election Commission (EC) initiated the delimitation process in response to a request from the government. Assam had not undergone delimitation since 1976, as it was excluded from the national delimitation exercise in 2002 due to security concerns.

As per the draft delimitation proposed by the EC, Assam's Assembly and Lok Sabha seats would remain at 126 and 14, respectively. This is in accordance with Articles 170 and 82 of the Constitution, which state that the number of seats should not be changed until the first Census after 2026 is published.

The draft also includes an increase in the number of reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes, from 16 to 19 in the Assembly and from two to three in the Lok Sabha, as well as an increase in reserved seats for Scheduled Castes from eight to nine in the Assembly.