The Election Commission of India (ECI) notified the delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary seats in Assam on 20 June to redraw the boundaries of the constituencies. The new proposal has kept the number of seats the same as it had existed—14 Lok Sabha seats and 126 assembly constituencies—but reduced the number of seats dominated by Muslim voters.
Following the Delimitation Act 2002 rules, the ECI considered the 2001 census to redraw the boundaries of the constituencies, which is seen as limiting the seats in Muslim-dominated districts. While the 2001 census was used to prepare the draft delimitation of Assam, the Delimitation Commission for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir used the 2011 census to increase the seats to 90 from 83 assembly constituencies in the Union region.
This variance in the use of census data has raised questions among the Muslim minority groups in Assam. “It appears that the whole practice (delimitation) has been by the Assam chief minister and proposed by the ECI. It is a conspiracy to deprive Muslims of their political rights by using old population numbers and altering the existing boundaries (of constituencies),” said the general secretary of Akhil Gogoi-led Rajor Dal and former president of All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), Azizur Rahman.
The draft delimitation proposal, adjusting the population of the district on average, proposes to decrease the number of seats in districts with a Muslim majority. The ECI, in its press statements, said that after consultation with 11 political parties and 72 organizations, it observed that the population growth in some districts was abnormally high, apparently suggesting the Muslim-dominated districts.
“This has resulted in the bifurcation of already existing seats in a way that the number of seats in the Muslim-dominated areas has been cut down,” said AAMSU adviser Ainuddin Ahmed.
Ahmed also said, “Though the ECI used the 2001 census, it should have increased the seats in Muslim-dominated areas, leaving alone the 2011 census. But the new draft has decreased the significance of Muslim voters in 35 seats to around 30 seats now.”
Assam’s Muslim population was 30.9 percent in 2001, which went up to 34.22 percent in 2011. However, as there is no break-up of the population based on ethnicity, the exact number of Bengali Muslims influencing electoral politics is not clear with precision. But local estimates suggest that the Bengali Muslim community makes up two-thirds of the Muslim population, settled mostly in the western and southern regions and also in the northern district of Lakhimpur.
The Bangali Muslims were brought in by the British as well as Rajas for cultivation since 1826, and they have been part of the Assamese demography. Thirty-one Muslim legislators were elected in the 2021 assembly polls. “But now if the draft is implemented, the number of Muslim legislators in the house will go down as some constituencies have been done away with and in some cases, the Muslim deciding factors have been cut down, as well as some seats have been reserved,” Rahman said.
This is substantiated by the fact that the number of assembly seats in Barpeta, having a Muslim preponderance, has been reduced to 6 from 8. Out of the six seats, one has been earmarked for the Scheduled Caste (SC) community. The proposed reserved seat is the Barpeta constituency where the sitting MLA is from the Muslim community.
The Naoboicha constituency in Lakhimpur district has been redrawn. Rahman, who contested from the constituency in the 2021 assembly elections, lost by a margin of around 2000 votes and previously, it was held by a Muslim candidate. The constituency had elected a Muslim candidate four times since 1978 and had five Muslim runner-up candidates.
The draft delimitation also reduces assembly seats in Bangali-dominated Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Hailakandi, and Karimganj from 15 to 13 seats, with one seat in each Muslim-majority district of Hailakandi and Karimganj.
Also, the draft has increased the number of reserved seats for SC and ST communities. Previously, seats were reserved for the SCs, which has been suggested to raise to nine. For the STs, the earmarked seats have been increased from 16 to 19. Like the Barpeta constituency, the Goalpara West seat has been suggested to be reserved for STs. Goalpara West constituency has elected a Muslim candidate since the creation of the constituency in 1967. The reservation, if implemented, means that no Muslim candidate can contest from the constituency.
While the number of assembly seats has gone down in Muslim-dominated areas, the Sixth Schedule Karbi Anglong Autonomous Region and Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) will have four more seats combined under the proposed demarcation of assembly seats. Karbi Anglong Autonomous region, which has four seats at present, will have five seats, and seats in BTR have been raised to 15 from 12 under the new draft.
The BJP won all the existing four assembly constituencies in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Region in the 2021 state elections, as well as all 26 Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) elections in 2022.
In the BTR region, the BJP in alliance with UPPL currently holds the 40-member Boroland Territorial Council (BTC) house following the 2020 territorial council polls to the Sixth Schedule region. Though it was a hung assembly after the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) had won 17 seats, the BJP, which emerged as the largest gainer in the region with nine seats, helped UPPL (12 seats) to take control of the BTC house.
Moreover, among the existing 12 assembly seats in the BTR region, the BJP won one seat, and its ally, the UPPL, won seven seats in the 2021 assembly elections.
“It is (the delimitation) being done to erase the Muslim representation in Assam’s politics forever. Despite the opposition by minority bodies, this process of restructuring the boundaries of constituencies is totally arbitrary. It has been done as per the will of the RSS and BJP,” said Taison Ahmed, the general secretary of All BTC Minority Students’ Union, a student body raising the issues of Muslims in the BTR.
The draft delimitation in Assam is being done following a 2020 Law Ministry order as the delimitation of constituencies in the state was deferred due to the unfinished National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the law and order situation at the time. In December 2022, the ECI announced that it would initiate the exercise and subsequently met various stakeholders in the state.
The ECI has restricted the date for suggestions and objections regarding the draft delimitation till July 11. Though the ECI has already published the draft of the delimitation, there are pending petitions objecting to the exercise.
