Assam: EC Delimitation Draft Proposes Kaziranga LS Seat, Increase In Seats Reserved For SCs, STs

The EC has proposed increasing the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes from the present eight to nine and invited suggestions till July 11.

The Election Commission on Tuesday published the draft delimitation proposal for Assam and invited suggestions and objections till July 11. The draft proposes a parliamentary seat named Kaziranga even though the EC has retained the number of Assembly seats at 126 and number of Lok Sabha seats at 14, PTI reported.

The EC has proposed increasing the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes from the present eight to nine. The poll watchdog has also suggested increasing ST seats from 16 to 19 in Assam.

The draft proposes to reserve 19 assembly and two parliamentary seats for STs, and nine assembly and one parliamentary seats for SCs.

The number of Assembly seats in West Karbi Anglong district has been suggested by the EC to be increased by one, and in Bodoland districts by three.

Diphu and Kokrajhar parliamentary seats have been reserved for ST and while the EC proposed continuing the Lakhimpur Parliamentary seat as unreserved.

According to the proposals, there will be one unreserved assembly seat in Dhemaji district. Two Parliamentary seats have been proposed for the Barak Valley districts. Among them, one has been named as Kaziranga.

The Election Commission has sought suggestions and objections till July 11 and its officials will again visit the state next month.

Election Commission officials had visited Assam from March 26-March 28 and held interactions with political parties, public representatives, civil society members, social organisations, members of public and officers in the state, including chief electoral officer, deputy commissioners of all districts and district election officers regarding the delimitation exercise.

Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, and other ECI officials had gone to Assam.

Representations from 11 political parties and 71 other organisations were received and considered for the delimitation draft, PTI reported.

Assam Congress had refused to meet the EC team, with state party chief Bhupen Borah pointing to several loopholes in the delimitation exercise in the state. However, he claimed that the Congress was not against the delimitation exercise.