Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said if a seat is reserved without altering the boundary, then the demogr... Read More

GUWAHATI: Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said the sole purpose of redrawing the boundaries of assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the state should be to protect the political rights of native Assamese by creating more seats in which a majority of voters would be from indigenous groups.

The state government’s stand on the nature of delimitation is likely to play a significant role in allaying the fears of indigenous Assamese that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act might turn them into a minority in their own homeland. The CAA offers citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan on grounds of religious persecution.

“Of the 126 assembly constituencies, at least 110 should be kept for the indigenous people. We do not want any increase in the number of constituencies… that won’t help us,” Sarma said.

Muslim voters in Assam account for about 37% of the state’s electorate. In the 2016 elections, 28 Muslim candidates had won. Of them, 14 are from Congress, 13 from AIUDF and one from BJP. Muslims voters also influence election results in six of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies and BJP wants a complete overhaul of the demography in these constituencies as well. These six constituencies are Barpeta, Dhubri, Nagaon, Kaliabor, Karimganj and Silchar.

“Many people think if seats are reserved, then it would provide the desired safeguards to natives. But if a seat is reserved without altering the boundary, then the demography of the voters will remain unchanged. If the voters in a reserved seat happen to be supporters of Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF chief) then the elected MLA will have to follow Ajmal’s orders and we are back to square one,” the minister added.

In the past, Sarma and other BJP leaders would often caution people that Ajmal would “very soon” become the chief minister of Assam if the influx of Muslims from Bangladesh continued unabated.

Sarma further said, “If a constituency is turned into an indigenous-majority one by redrawing the boundaries, then we will have indigenous voters as well as an indigenous MLA. This is the only way to secure the existence of the indigenous communities of Assam.”

Sarma’s statement comes a day after President Ram Nath Kovind cleared the decks for resumption of the delimitation exercise in Assam. The exercise was put on hold in 2008 as the situation in the state was reported to be unsuitable owing to a threat to peace and public order.

Before the exercise was suspended, the delimitation commission had already prepared the draft proposal of the new boundaries for the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies on the basis of the 2001 Census. The current delimitation will be done according to the 2011 Census.

According to the old draft, the number of assembly seats reserved for STs has been increased from 16 to 19 and those for SCs from eight to nine. Several Muslim-majority constituencies have ceased to exist with the boundaries being redrawn and the new seats getting new names.

Among the Lok Sabha constituencies, Mangaldai has been done away with and a new constituency, Udalguri, with Bodo tribal majority voters, has been proposed in its place.

Leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia said, “The resumption of the delimitation exercise is a wrong decision taken by the BJP government. You cannot start the process without first deciding on the fate of 19 lakh people excluded from NRC .”

