Election Commission publishes draft delimitation proposal for Assam

The Election Commission has proposed to retain the number of assembly seats in Assam at 126 and the Lok Sabha constituencies at 14 as it released the draft delimitation papers for the northeastern state.

New Delhi:The Election Commission of India on Tuesday published the draft proposal for delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies for the north-eastern state of Assam.

The last delimitation exercise in Assam took place back in 1976 while the current exercise is based on the 2001 Census data. "The number of seats in the Legislative Assembly and the House of People in the State of Assam has been retained as 126 and 14 respectively", said the ECI in its press note.

Out of the 126 Assembly seats, 19 seats will be allocated for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 9 seats for Scheduled Castes (SCs). Similarly, out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats allocated to Assam, 2 seats will be reserved for STs and 1 seat for SCs. Some salient features of this draft proposal include that the proposal ensures that the lowest administrative unit such as ‘Village’ and ‘Ward’ remain intact throughout the state.

SC assembly seats have increased from 8 to 9 while the ST assembly seats have increased from 16 to 19. The EC has retained Diphu and Kokrajhar parliamentary seats reserved for ST and continued the Lakhimpur Parliamentary seat as unreserved. "The draft proposal has been prepared based on administrative units i.e., Development block, Panchayats (VCDC in BTAD) and villages in rural areas and Municipal Boards, wards in urban areas", the ECI said.

"Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel is slated to visit Assam again in July 2023 for a public hearing on the draft proposal, the ECI said. Individuals and organizations have been asked to submit their suggestions and objections regarding the proposed delimitation before July 11 2023.