Guwahati: Protesting the draft delimitation proposals for Assembly and Parliamentary seats in Assam, opposition All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) on Tuesday threatened to move court if the plan is not shelved.
Criticising the Congress, AIUDF organisational general secretary and MLA Aminul Islam said the Election Commission of India (ECI) had carried out the exercise instead of the Delimitation Commission because of amendments in relevant acts by the UPA government in 2008.
“We are studying all the points of the draft carefully. We will submit our opposition to the proposals by July 11,” he told reporters here.
The party will also meet the ECI delegation, which is slated to visit Assam next month, and present their objections to the draft, Islam said.
“If the ECI still does not withdraw the draft proposals, we will move court. We will explore all possible options,” he added.
On June 20, the ECI had notified the draft delimitation document by retaining the number of Assembly seats in Assam at 126 and Lok Sabha constituencies at 14. The state also has seven Rajya Sabha seats.
As per the draft, Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Castes have been increased to nine from eight and 19 from 16 for Scheduled Tribes. For Parliamentary constituencies, two have been proposed for ST category and one for SC community.
The poll panel has also proposed to alter the geographical boundaries of most of the constituencies, both Assembly and Lok Sabha, while eliminating some seats and creating few new ones.
Islam alleged that the ECI could carry out the delimitation exercise only because of amendments in the relevant acts by the previous government.
“Two acts were amended and responsibility of delimitation was handed over to the ECI from the Delimitation Commission. It was done in 2008, when Congress was at the Centre. Congress prepared the blueprint and the BJP is now implementing it,” he added.
He alleged that the BJP in an understanding with the Congress is going ahead with the delimitation process as both parties will gain from the proposals.
“Muslim majority constituencies will decrease by 8-9 seats. Their only aim is to finish AIUDF and our chief Badruddin Ajmal. This is an attempt to politically finish a particular community,” Islam said.
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Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel are slated to visit Assam in July for a public hearing on the draft proposal.
The ECI had earlier visited Assam on March 26-28 and held interactions with political parties, public representatives, civil society members, social organisations, members of public and officers in the state regarding the delimitation exercise.
In total, representations from 11 political parties and 71 other organisations were received and considered.
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