Congress urges EC to ensure Assam delimitation as per rules

Speaking to ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri Assam Congress Working President Rana Goswami said that they had told the EC that they are not against delimitation but want that it should be done in a legal way and should not cause harassment to the people.

New Delhi:The Congress on Wednesday expressed its concerns over the delimitation of constituencies in Assam before the Election Commission and urged the poll panel to ensure that the administrative exercise should happen in a legal way and cause no harassment to the people.

“We told the EC that we are not against delimitation but want that it should be done in a legal way and should not cause harassment to the people,” Assam Congress Working President Rana Goswami told ETV Bharat.

A delegation of the Assam Congress headed by state unit chief Bhupen Kumar Borah and comprising senior leaders like Lok Sabha members Gaurav Gogoi, Pradyut Bordoloi among others, met Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar to apprise him of the party’s views over delimitation that has invited sharp reactions among the locals.

According to Goswami, the issue had cropped up earlier in 2007 when there was a Congress government in Assam but it had stopped the exercise due to public sentiment against delimitation.

Later, he said, the issue of the National Register of Citizens cropped up during which around 19 lakh people had been left out in the state. “Subsequently, the matter is in court. Hence, we urged the CEC that there should be no public harassment during the delimitation exercise,” said Goswami.

Further, the Congress delegation urged the CEC to conduct the exercise as per the 2011 Census and not the 2001 Census. “The delimitation in UT Jammu and Kashmir has been done on the basis of the 2011 Census. The same should be done in the case of Assam,” said Goswami, adding that, “as the next delimitation is scheduled to take place in 2026, the present exercise may be carried out then.”

In May 2022, the Delimitation Commission recommended 7 additional constituencies in J&K, including six in Jammu and one in Kashmir. This would take the total number of seats in the UT from 83 to 90.

At present, Assam has 14 Lok Sabha and 126 assembly constituencies. The CEC is doing the delimitation of constituencies in the eastern state as per a law ministry directive.

According to Goswami, though the EC had asked the state government not to change the status of districts from January 1, 2023, the Cabinet had recently decided to re-merge four districts into the original districts, bringing down the number of districts in Assam from 35 to 31.

“One year ago, there was a big agitation over the re-merging of the four districts by the locals. But it was done recently. The CEC has asked the State Election Commission to redraw the maps of the constituencies. I hope the number of constituencies will not change,” said Goswami.

According to Goswami, the CEC gave a patient hearing to the Congress delegation and assured them to look into the memorandum submitted by the opposition party.

“The CEC heard all our points. Election Commissioner Arun Goel was also present during the meeting. Now the panel will take appropriate decisions. We have also briefed our party president Mallikarjun Kharge about the developments in Assam,” said Goswami.