Congress skips EC meet on delimitation in Assam, other parties seek increase in seats, deferment

Congress suspected that the EC meeting has a 'hidden and predetermined objective'

Congress skipped the Election Commission (EC) meeting for the delimitation exercise to be carried out in Assam citing that the time allotted to the main Opposition party was insufficient and suspected that the meeting had a "predetermined objective."

"The EC allotted only three hours for 11 political parties. This means each party will get only 15 minutes. We requested the EC to give us more time as we are the main opposition party in the state. But the commission did not give us more time and so we decided to skip today's meeting," Bhupen Kumar Borah, president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) told reporters in Guwahati, amid the EC team's meeting with political party representatives, here.

"The way EC neglected our request to give more time shows that there is a hidden and predetermined objective of this meeting," Borah further said.

The EC team headed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar reached Guwahati on Sunday for a three-day visit to hold consultations with various stakeholders for delimitation of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies in Assam. Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel are accompanying Kumar on the visit.

The EC team met representatives of political parties first on Monday between 9 am and 12 noon at a hotel, which was followed by a meeting with representatives of civil society and non-political organisations to take stock of the ground situation and expectations of the stakeholders.

The delimitation exercise in Assam was supposed to be carried out in 2007 but the same was postponed mainly due to law and order issues. The EC started the process in December last year after being asked by the government.

The state government said although the exercise seeks to redraw the boundaries of the 14 Parliamentary and 126 Assembly constituencies, there will be no change in the number of the constituencies. The delimitation will be done based on population as in the 2001 Census.

The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), led by Badruddin Ajmal, however, urged the EC to increase the number of constituencies. A delegation of AIUDF, which met the EC team, said that the exercise should be done along with other states in 2026.

Ripun Bora, president of the Assam unit of Trinamool Congress also urged the EC to increase the number of constituencies. The party also asked why the exercise would be carried out based on the Census of 2001 and not the Census of 2011.

Assam Jatiya Parishad, a regional party, also urged the EC to postpone the exercise till 2026 when the NRC exercise is also likely to be completed. Petitions seeking re-verification of the NRC are pending in the Supreme Court.

The ruling BJP believes that the delimitation will ensure "political rights of the indigenous Assamese" people. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said he was hopeful that the delimitation would do what the NRC exercise could not achieve.

An official statement issued by Nitin Khade, Chief Electoral Officer, Assam said the EC team would visit the state again after the draft proposal for the Delimitation exercise is published. "Thus stakeholders will be getting two opportunities to interact with the Commission to make the Delimitation process more inclusive, participatory and transparent." it said.

The statement said the EC again invited Congress to the meet.