Guwahati: Amidst the uproar against the Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) delimitation draft across Assam, Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool Congress leader Sushmita Dev will stage a hunger strike in Silchar on Monday in protest against the proposal of the apex poll body on delimitation in the state.
Dev has also written a letter to the Union law minister, urging the ministry to reconsider the decision to carry out the delimitation process in Assam at this point of time.
The ECI had on June 20 released a draft of the proposed delimitation for Assam’s 126 Assembly seats and 14 Lok Sabha seats. According to the draft proposal, the Assembly seats in the three districts of Barak Valley, the number of which was 15 till the 2021 elections, will be reduced to 13.
Addressing the media, Dev said that she intends to sit on a 10-hour hunger strike starting at 9 am on Monday. The TMC leader will be accompanied during the strike by her party members.
She also urged Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to listen to the voices of protesters in Barak Valley and write to the ECI opposing the reduction of seats in that region. The delimitation proposal has faced opposition from various sections of society in Barak Valley and other parts of the state.
The Rajya Sabha MP said that Himanta Biswa Sarma was not the chief minister of one party or a particular area. “People of Barak Valley also voted him to this position and it is his duty to listen to voices in Barak Valley,” she said.
Notably, 11 political parties had sought clarification from the Election Commission as to why in the case of Assam the 2001 census data has been proposed to be used for the delimitation process even as the 2011 census data was available.
In a letter to Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Friday, the TMC leader questioned the proposal for the delimitation process on the basis of the 2001 census data.
“What the law ministry has done now in the case of Assam is instead of amending the Constitution to ensure the latest census of 2011 as the base census, it has simply gone ahead with the old census of 2001. All major political parties of the opposition gave in writing to the Election Commission during their visit to Guwahati in March 2023 that the delimitation should wait for the census which is due to happen after 2026 so that seats can be increased as per demography and not taking the latest census of 2011 as the base census makes the entire exercise a sham,” Dev wrote in the letter to the Union law minister on Friday.
She also highlighted the unresolved issues with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and questioned the Election Commission’s response to objections raised during their visit to Guwahati in March 2023.
“Either the Election Commission remained silent about these objections raised during their visit to Guwahati in March 2023 or if they did apprise your office about it then you have deliberately remained silent on an important matter,” Dev stated.
“The government of India took the 2011 census as the base for the delimitation of Jammu and Kashmir but failed to do so in the case Assam, which is prima facie discriminatory,” she pointed out.
Dev urged the law ministry to “realise the pitfalls of the entire process and take immediate action to rectify the shortcomings”.
She stressed that the statements made by the Assam Chief Minister after the release of the draft delimitation have raised doubts about the intentions behind the exercise. She also suggested that the chief minister’s remarks imply a political agenda rather than an administrative exercise aligned with the Constitution.
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“It is unfortunate for a chief minister to attribute a design other than the scheme of things under the Constitution to the ECI which is an independent autonomous body,” Dev wrote to the Union law minister.
“To go ahead with this delimitation in Assam before 2026 has no justification and conducting one on the basis of the 2001 census is an even greater injustice. I hope you will reconsider the decision to carry out the delimitation process in Assam at this point,” the MP further stated in the letter.
Also Read | AAP raises concern over Assam delimitation draft amid widespread protests