Several political parties and organisations have called for a 12-hour bandh in Barak Valley–Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi districts on Tuesday to protest against the proposed delimitation draft by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The state police also detained protestors in Karimganj today.
What is ECI’s Delimitation Draft and why Assam’s Barak Valley is angry?
The Election Commission of India on 20th June released a draft of the proposed delimitation for Assam’s 126 assembly seats and 14 Lok Sabha seats.
The EC draft on delimitation proposes to reserve 19 assemblies and two parliamentary seats for STs, and nine assemblies and one parliamentary seat for SCs.
According to the proposals, the three districts of Barack Valley (Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi) assembly seats would be reduced from 15 to 13. Besides, the name of a few constituencies will also be changed as per the proposal.
Apart from reducing the number of assembly seats in the Barak Valley, the ECI has made a slew of other proposals:
– The poll body proposed that the number of assembly seats in the autonomous districts of West Karbi Anglong is increased by one and in Bodoland autonomous council areas by three (from 16 to 19).
– According to the proposals, there will be one unreserved assembly seat in Dhemaji district
– The Election Commission has retained Diphu and Kokrajhar parliamentary seats reserved for ST and continued the Lakhimpur parliamentary seat as unreserved.
The delimitation exercise was carried out on the basis of the 2001 census. The last delimitation was done in Assam in 1976. Since the last delimitation exercise, the number of districts has increased from 10 to 31 in the northeastern state, and the number of administrative units at development block and gram panchayat levels has undergone drastic changes.
Multiple parties oppose Assam’s delimitation draft bill:
Terming the draft delimitation proposal an attempt by the BJP to polarise voters on religious lines disregarding the sentiment of the people, opposition parties decided to present the ‘grievances’ of the citizens before the Election Commission.
A local Asom Gana Parishad leader said, “Our Amguri constituency is being merged with another constituency and we are losing our identity. We will not accept it and continue our agitation”.
AIUDF protestors demanded that the status quo of boundaries and the name of constituencies be maintained.
“We chose Sivsagar as the different communities, tribes, and sub-groups are feeling hurt and betrayed. The BJP has ignored their sentiment and the EC has not taken into consideration the historical perspectives,” state Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah said.
Dipayan Chakraborty, BJP MLA from Silchar has also expressed dissatisfaction over the ECI’s decision. He said he will be expressing views before the state committee and is optimistic some proposals will be rectified.
Sujit Roy, son of the president of BJP’s Cachar committee said that he is ready to shed blood to stop this delimitation.
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Updated: 27 Jun 2023, 11:28 AM IST
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