Assam will have fewer Muslim-majority constituencies, say Opposition leaders

The Election Commission, in its draft proposal, has effectively limited the number of Muslim-majority Assembly constituencies to 22 from 29, say the AIUDF and the Congress; Chief Minister says that the draft delimitation proposals would do what the Assam Accord of 1985 and the NRC could not

Muslim men and women wait in queue to cast their votes during an election in Assam. File | Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar

The draft delimitation proposal for Assam increases the number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the State Assembly to 19 from 16 and that for the Scheduled Castes to nine from eight, while retaining the total number of Assembly constituencies at 126 and Lok Sabha constituencies at 14. It also proposes to alter the geographical boundaries of most constituencies, by eliminating a few and creating some new ones.

The draft proposal limits the number of Muslim-majority Assembly constituencies to 22 from the earlier 29, according to the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

In 90 constituencies, the indigenous Assamese people would be in majority, while in 10 to 12 seats the Bengali people would be dominant.

“The Election Commission of India prepared the delimitation draft in such a way that Muslim representation in the Assembly can be reduced,” Karim Uddin Barbhuiya, AIUDF MLA, tweeted.

The Election Commission has said that it has carried out the delimitation exercise as per Section 8(A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which only allows redrawing of boundaries and not any increase in the number of constituencies.

This coupled with the fact that data from the 2001 Census and not 2011 one were used for the delimitation draft means that any increase in minority population in constituencies reserved for the SCs and the STs would not be taken into consideration, thus protecting them from being de-reserved.

The poll body had announced the delimitation exercise on December 27, 2022. Barely four days after the delimitation was announced, on December 31, the Assam Cabinet decided to merge four districts with existing ones and redraw boundaries in 14 places, effectively reducing the number of districts to 31 from 35. Three of the districts — Bajali, Biswanath, and Hojai — which were merged with their parent districts had a sizeable Muslim population. But post-merger, the proportion of Muslims in the newly merged districts was altered and that, in turn, impacted the Election Commission’s exercise as it considered these new districts for redrawing the boundaries of the constituencies.

The leaders argue that there has been a concerted effort to either “scatter” or “ghettoise” the Muslim vote.

Congress leader Prodyut Bordoloi told The Hindu that there was no territorial contiguity in the proposed draft of redrawing the boundaries of Assembly constituencies. “They have acted arbitrarily just like the Radcliffe Line was used during Partition of the country”. The Radcliffe Line demarcated the boundary between India and Pakistan during Independence. It as named after British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who had never been to India, but was tasked with drawing it.

The BJP was among 11 political parties and 71 civil society organisations which the poll body had consulted before formulating the draft proposal which was released on June 20. The Congress boycotted the deliberations.