Several Assam Leaders Will Need New Constituencies if Delimitation Draft Is Finalised: Reports
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: The delimitation draft’s implementation in Assam could have far reaching implications for the political landscape of the state with as many as 30 constituencies ceasing to exist and 26 new ones being drawn, the Economic Times reported.
Several leaders, including Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, will need new constituencies for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and 2026 assembly elections if this draft is finalised, the report said.
Sarma’s Jalukbari constituency, which he had been representing since 2001, will be divided into three parts while BJP leader and Assam assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary's Panery constituency will no longer exist. Forest minister Chandra Mohan's Patowary seat in Dharmapur will also cease to exist, the report said.
Some of the other seats excluded are that of transport minister Parimal Suklabaidya (Dholai) and MLAs Siddhartha Bhattacharya (Guwahati East), Asom Gana Parishad's Ramendra Narayan Kalita (West Guwahati), Binod Hazarika (Chabua), Sushanta Borgohain (Thowra), Krishnendu Paul (Patharkandi), Rupsing Teron (Baithalangso), and Dosing Rohtang (Howraghat).
AGP's Pradip Hazarika's (Amguri) seat has ceased to exist. Congress leader Jakir Hussain Sikdar (Sarukhetri), Sherman Ali Ahmed (Baghbar), Rekibuddin Ahmed (Chaygaon), Bharat Narah (Naoboicha), and Basanta Das (Mangaldoi) will have to look for new constituencies.
The Election Commission (ECI) had published a draft proposal for delimitation of the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in Assam on Tuesday. The ongoing exercise is the first in Assam since 1976, an Indian Express report said.
Sarma addressed a public gathering on Friday saying that the draft delimitation proposal would achieve what the 1985 Assam Accord and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) could not, and help “protect the interests of the people of Assam”, the Indian Express reported.
The draft does not change the total number of the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies – which remain 14 and 126 respectively – but it has proposed an increase in the ST-reserved assembly seats from 16 to 19 and the SC-reserved seats from 8 to 9, the Indian Express report said.
While the BJP has hailed the EC’s proposal, opposition parties are unhappy with the draft.
All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal said that the party will suffer heavy losses if the proposed draft is implemented. “This planning has been done with BJP as the mastermind with the target of reducing [the impact of] Muslim votes to the extent possible. The way Himanta has done this along with Amit Shah is such that Assam can have only two parties, the BJP and the Congress, and that no other party can be in the middle,” he alleged.
Congress, the main opposition party in the state, has also criticised the manner in which the delimitation exercise has been conducted by the EC, the Indian Express reported.
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