GUWAHATI, July 20 (PTI): An Election Commission of India (ECI) team on Thursday heard suggestions and grievances of various political parties as part of the public hearings on draft delimitation proposals for Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies of Assam.
Opposition Congress and AIUDF opposed the ongoing delimitation exercise and urged the poll panel to stop it until the Supreme Court takes a decision on two pending cases on the matter.
On the other hand, the ruling BJP and its allies AGP and UPPL welcomed the draft saying that the interest of the indigenous people will be protected with the implementation of the proposals.
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After appearing before the ECI during a public hearing on the draft delimitation proposals, Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah told reporters that the party has urged the poll panel to immediately stop the exercise.
“In 2008, the delimitation was stopped due to the prevailing situation. The situation has not changed yet. Also, two cases are pending at the Supreme Court, which has fixed July 25 for the next hearing,” he added.
Until the apex court takes a decision on the cases, the ECI should stop this exercise, Borah said.
“With delimitation being done on the basis of the 2001 Census, we questioned whether the ECI will recognise all those people as Indian citizens even as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is still not ready yet. The ECI had no answer to that,” he added.
AIUDF organisational general secretary and MLA Aminul Islam said that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA is still imposed in Assam, while the NRC is not finalised yet and around 160 petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are pending before the SC.
“In such a situation, what’s the hurry to have the delimitation now? In any case, we are going to have a nationwide delimitation in 2026,” he added.
BJP Assam president Bhabesh Kalita said the party has welcomed the exercise and only gave some suggestions regarding some constituencies and expressed hope that the poll panel will accept those.
AGP president and Agriculture minister Atul Bora said, “We welcome this draft proposal and it should give crucial protection to the indigenous people. We gave our suggestions regarding some constituencies.”
UPPL president Pramod Boro said that the party is happy as the number of assembly seats in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) is proposed to be increased.
“We have urged the poll panel to increase the Lok Sabha seats to two in BTR from the existing one. The ECI said it will look into the demand,” he added.
Representatives from other parties such as AAP, CPI(M) and BPF shared their feedback and suggestions with the commission, ECI said in a release later.
United Opposition Forum Assam, comprising Congress, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI(M), Raijor Dal, CPI, Jatiya Dal Assam, NCP, RJD, Janata Dal (U), TMC and CPI(ML), and several registered unrecognised political parties took part, it added.
The ECI said it heard 645 representations during the day, and received over 270 suggestions on Wednesday, the statement said.
The full bench of the ECI reached here on Wednesday to hold a series of public hearings on draft delimitation proposals for Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies of Assam.
Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel along with senior officials of the ECI are holding the three-day hearing at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra complex here.
During this public hearing, the ECI has been holding discussions with various stakeholders, including political parties and civil society organisations, over the draft proposals on the delimitation exercise.
On the first day, suggestions for Kamrup Metropolitan, West Karbi Anglong, Chirang, Baksa, Dima Hasao, Kamrup, Udalguri, Karbi Anglong and Kokrajhar districts were accepted. Over 270 representations were received by the ECI from these areas.
Feedback on the draft for Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari, Sonitpur, Karimganj, Darrang, Hailakandi, Cachar, South Salmara, Nagaon, Morigaon and Dhubri were heard on Thursday. More than 400 suggestions were received from these districts.
On the last day, the ECI will listen to the prayers regarding Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Golaghat and Majuli districts, and over 95 proposals were submitted from these areas.
Besides, six suggestions were received from various national and state political parties.
The last delimitation exercise in Assam took place in 1976 on the basis of the 1971 Census.
Many political parties have knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court against the entire delimitation exercise.
The ECI had on June 20 notified the draft delimitation document by retaining the number of Assembly seats in Assam at 126 and the Lok Sabha constituencies at 14. The state has seven Rajya Sabha seats.
As per the draft, the Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Castes have been increased to nine from eight and for Scheduled Tribes to 19 from 16. For the Parliamentary constituencies, two have been proposed under the ST category and one for the SC community.
The poll panel has also planned to alter the geographical boundaries of most of the constituencies, both Assembly and Lok Sabha, while eliminating some seats and creating a few new ones.
An ECI team had earlier visited Assam on March 26-28 and held interactions with political parties, public representatives, civil society members, social organisations, members of the public and officers regarding the delimitation exercise.
In total, representations from 11 political parties and 71 other organisations were received and considered during that visit of the ECI.
