ECI publishes final delimitation order for Assembly & Parliamentary Constituencies of Assam

All Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the State have been delimited based on the 2001 Census as provided in Article 170 and Article 82 of the Constitution.

The Election Commission of India today published the final order for delimitation of Parliamentary & Assembly Constituencies for State of Assam, as provided for in Section 8-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The final order was notified and published in the gazettes of the Central Government and State of Assam. The final proposal has been prepared by the Commission after an extensive and robust consultative exercise with diverse stakeholders which included three days of public hearings in Guwahati on the draft proposal in July 2023 and pre- meeting before drafting the report in March 2023.

The Commission, during the public hearings on draft delimitation proposal received many conflicting representations from members of the public, political parties, and organizations for change of nomenclature of some Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies, highlighting the historical, cultural, political, and ethnic significance of the region. CEC Shri Kumar had appreciated the ability of different groups of Assam to present their conflicting claims on various issues in a respectful and friendly manner, without creating confrontations or hostility.

All representations were duly heard by the Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Shri Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioners Shri Anup Chandra Pandey and Shri Arun Goel and were considered and assessed, within the constitutional and statutory provisions, before finalising the proposal. A total of 1222 representations were received w.r.t. Commission’s draft proposal, in public sittings or otherwise. Around 45% of the total 1222 suggestions/objections received in the Commission have been addressed in the final proposal. In around 5% of the representations, the demands raised were found beyond the constitutional and statutory provisions and hence could not be acceded to. The requests made in all the remaining suggestions/objections were not found feasible to accommodate.

All Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the State have been delimited based on the 2001 Census as provided in Article 170 and Article 82 of the Constitution. The census figures of 2001, as published by the Census Commissioner have thus alone been considered for this purpose. The number of seats in the Legislative Assembly in the State of Assam have been kept as 126 and number of seats allocated in the House of People for the State of Assam as 14. Articles 170 & 82 laid down that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of each State and the allocation of seats in the House of the people to the States shall not be altered until the relevant figures for the first census taken after year 2026 have been published.

09 seats in the Legislative Assembly are allocated for Scheduled Castes, while 1 seat is allocated for Scheduled Castes in House of People.19 Assembly constituencies and two Parliament Constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Reservation of constituencies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been done on the basis of the provisions laid down in Article 330 and 332 of the Constitution of India.

Some salient features:

Lowest administrative unit has been taken as ‘Village’ in rural areas and ‘Ward’ in urban areas. Accordingly, village and ward have been kept intact and have not been broken anywhere in the State. The proposal has been prepared based on administrative units of development i.e., Development block, Panchayats (VCDC in BTAD) and village in rural areas and Municipal Boards, wards in urban areas.

SC assembly seats have increased from 8 to 9; ST assembly seats have increased from 16 to 19

Increase of 01 assembly seat in Autonomous districts in West Karbi Anglong District

Increase of Assembly Constituencies (ACs) in Bodoland districts from 11 to 15

Retaining Diphu and Kokrajhar Parliamentary seats reserved for ST

Continuing Lakhimpur Parliamentary seat as unreserved;

01 unreserved AC in Dhemaji district

01 Parliamentary seat namely ‘Diphu’ reserved for ST which comprises 06 ACs of 03 Autonomous districts

02 Parliamentary seats given to the Barak Valley districts i.e., Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts.

01 Parliamentary seat named as ‘Kaziranga’, while 01 Assembly Constituency named as ‘Manas’.

Renaming of certain ACs and PCs

After considering representations, the Commission in the final order has revised the existing nomenclature of 19 ACs and 01 PC as given in table below. One Parliamentary and some Assembly Constituencies gets paired names such as, Darrang-Udalgiri, Hajo- Sualkuchi, Boko-Chaygaon, Nagaon- Batadraba, Bhowanipur- Sorbhog, Algapur- Katlichera, in view of the demand from members of the public.

Extensive Consultations:

1. Public Hearings on Draft Delimitation Proposal during July 19-21, 2023

The Commission comprising Chief Election Commissioner Shri Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Shri Anup Chandra Pandey and Shri Arun Goel held hearings from representatives of political parties, civil society organizations and members of public on the draft Delimitation proposal during the public sittings organized in the city of Guwahati on 19^th, 20^th and 21^st July, 2023, to provide an opportunity to the people, public representatives, political leaders and other stakeholders to express their views. The public hearings were part of the consultative exercise by the Commission during the process of delimitation. All those who filed suggestions and objections in response to the public notice, were specifically heard. During these three days, the Commission heard over 1200 representations from 31 districts and held meetings with over 20 political parties.

Representatives from National Parties namely Aam Aadmi Party, Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Bhartiya Janata Party; State Parties namely All India United Democratic Front, Asom Gana Parishad, United Peoples Party Liberal and Bodoland People’s Front shared their feedback and suggestions before the Commission. Besides, United Opposition Forum Assam (comprising of Assam Pradesh Congress, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPM, Raijor Dal, CPI, Jatiya Dal Assam, NCP, RJD, Janata Dal (U), TMC, CPI(ML) & Others) and the Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs) namely, Raijor Dal, Bhartiya Gana Parishad, National Republican Congress and Assam Jatiya Parishad also participated.

In total, more than 6000 persons participated in the public hearings. During the public sittings held in three days, the Commission patiently heard all the representations from different sections of society, organizations and political parties and assured due consideration of all the representations within the constitutional and statutory provisions. The total 1222 representations were received w.r.t. Commission’s draft proposal, in public sittings or otherwise. All the suggestions in response to the public notice, given in writing or orally during the public sittings and representations received from various stakeholders were tabulated in the Commission and the Commission conducted a final round of internal meetings to examine all the suggestions and took decision on the changes to be made in the draft proposal. All such changes have been incorporated while preparing the Final Order, before its publication in the Official Gazette of the Government of India as well as of the State of Assam.

(With Inputs from PIB)