GUWAHATI: The Assam unit of Trinamool Congress (TMC) has requested the election commission of India (ECI) to defer the delimitation exercise in the state.
In a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC), Assam TMC president Ripun Bora has requested the ECI to defer the delimitation exercise in the state by three (3) years.
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“…we Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) urge upon you to defer this ongoing delimitation exercise,” Assam TMC chief Ripun Bora stated in his letter to the CEC.
The Assam TMC president opined that current delimitation exercise in the state will be futile as it “will be in force for 3 years only”.
“As you know the delimitation exercise for the entire country in respect of assembly and parliamentary constituencies is due in 2026. Therefore the ongoing exercise on delimitation will be in force only for 3 years,” Assam TMC chief Ripun Bora stated.
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He added: “Since we have waited for such a long time to complete the delimitation in Assam, we do not see any urgency to carry out this delimitation exercise only for 3 years at the cost of huge public money and precious time.”
In his letter to the CEC, Assam TMC president Ripun Bora further stated that “the delimitation exercise in Assam which was started in the year 2003-2004 was postponed in 2008 on the consensus arrived among the political parties that the delimitation exercise in Assam shall be taken only after completion of updating of NRC”.
“Though the final updated NRC for Assam published on 31 August 2019 but the issue is still unresolved. Nearly names of 19 lakhs applicants have been dropped from the final list and till now as per NRC procedure they have not been given the reasons of rejection of their names, for which they have not yet been able to file appeal petition to review their cases for inclusion of their names in NRC,” Bora said.
“Under this backdrop without finalizing the entire process of NRC, without identifying the foreigners, the purpose of postponement of delimitation exercise in Assam in 2008 will serve no purpose,” he added.
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The Assam TMC president said: “The delimitation commission postponed the delimitation exercise in Assam in 2008 on the basis of the consensus arrived among the political parties. But it is very surprising that election commission of India all on a sudden started the delimitation exercise in Assam without any prior consultation with the political parties, which was earlier postponed on the demand of political parties.”
“The present delimitation exercise in Assam is started on the basis of the population census report of 2001. It is not understood why the latest population census report is not taken into consideration. The population census report of 2021 has not yet been published. If this delimitation exercise is taken out on the basis of latest population census report available (2011) it would have been more effective, because the present population data of the legislative assembly constituencies will help in properly adjusting the constituencies.”
“Normally in the delimitation exercise as done in the past we have seen increase of Assembly constituencies. In case of Assam since 1972 (Last Delimitation) there is no increase of Assembly constituencies. At present considering tremendous increase of population and voters comparing to 1972, there is strong justification for increase of Assam Assembly Constituencies from existing 126. But in this delimitation exercise there is no any provision for increasing of Assam Assembly constituencies.”