EC’s releases new delimitation draft for Assam; no change in assembly seats

DISPUR, Assam: New delimitation draft issued by the Election Commission shows no changes in the number of assembly seats in Assam. Draft document released on Tuesday, June 20, has retained 126 seats in the State Legislative Assembly and 14 Lok Sabha constituencies. 

However, an official statement said that the election commission has proposed to increase the number of assembly seats reserved for the Schedule Caste candidates from eight to nine and for Schedule Tribe candidates from 16 to 19.

A parliamentary seat has also been proposed to be named Kaziranga. The draft also proposes to reserve two seats for the Schedule Tribe and one seat for the Schedule Castes in the Lok Sabha constituency.

The number of assembly seats in the autonomous district of West Karbi Anglong should be increased by one. Similarly, in Bodoland autonomous district council (ADC) three seats should be added as per the draft notification. The commission has retained the Diphu and Kokrajhar seats in Lok Sabha for Schedule Tribes, while the Lakhimpur seat would remain unreserved.

Delimitation document also proposes one unreserved assembly seat in Dhemaji district and two seats in the Barak Valley district. 

The last delimitation exercise in Assam was carried out in the year 1976.

The current exercise has been conducted based on the population figure of 2001. As part of the delimitation process, EC visited Assam between March 26 and March 28 this year, where they deliberated with public representatives, political parties, civil society organisations and officers in the state, including the Chief Electoral Officer, Deputy Commissioner and other election officers as part of the exercise.