HT Correspondent
SIVASAGAR, June 30: United Opposition Forum (UOF) consisting of twelve political parties on Friday joined the protest demonstrations carried out by different organisations including Raijor Dal in Sivasagar Doulmukh Chariali against the Delimitation draft, published by the Election Commission recently.
Later addressing the media, the leader of the opposition Debabrat Saikia said that the opposition political parties in Assam began protesting against delimitation under the present circumstances immediately after the EC announced notification in December last.
“But the BJP government under Himanta Biswa Sarma, almost autocratically, decided to carry out a surgical strike after a meeting with the central leaders on December 31 without any consultations with the entire opposition. The United Opposition Forum is of the opinion that the EC should go for delimitation in 2031 only as it is not very far,” Saikia added
When the CEC and other ECs came to Guwahati in connection with delimitation with the 2007 draft, the opposition parties including AGP, now a part of the ruling alliance, lodged strong protests against delimitation.
The earlier draft was prepared under the chairmanship of former Justice Kuldeep Sing in 2007.
The UOF secretary and president Asom Jatiya Dal Lurinjyoti Gogoi, said that the delimitation move is not free from the political interests of the ruling party. He said that the UOF will take the issue to the people so that the delimitation move cannot destroy the contours of ethnic and indigenous communities which began with Saulung Sukapha in the Sivasagar district.
The present delimitation draft is opposed by the people of Sivasagar as it shatters the age-old communal and cultural heritage of the constituency.
Senior Congress leader Rokibul Hussain, Raijor Dal supremo Akhil Gogoi, Congress leader, and MP Gaurav Gogoi and several others were present at the meeting.