[ad_1]
The recently released draft delimitation proposal by the Election Commission for Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam has caused a stir in the state’s primarily Bengali-speaking Barak Valley region. The draft proposes a reduction in the number of Assembly seats in the three districts of Barak Valley — Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi — from 15 to 13. On Tuesday, Opposition parties, including the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), conducted a ‘Barak Bandh’.
North Karimganj MLA and Assam Congress working president Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha speaks to The Indian Express about the reasons for the unrest, and whether it creates possibilities for alliances with other parties opposing the proposal. Excerpts:
Were the poll panel proposals for Barak Valley along expected lines?
Dey Purkayastha: In 1971, we had a Census in which the valley’s population was enumerated at approximately 17 lakh. In 1976, we had delimitation, and then our population was around 20 lakh. Now, in 2023, when there is another delimitation, our voter population is around 45 lakh. How are the number of seats falling, if the population has increased? What is the mechanism? The guidelines have not been followed at all. They clearly say that to the extent possible, development blocks should not be broken. But constituencies are being made with six different blocks… Even in terms of geography, the last points of the proposed Badarpur Assembly constituency are at a distance of 100 km from each other… There is no continuity, no compactness… Democracy is being killed by this delimitation. If this is done, it should be done for the people.
Concerns have been raised about the proposal to reserve one of the two Lok Sabha seats from the valley, Silchar, for SCs.
Dey Purkayastha: There is a constitutional provision for reservation of seats. We don’t want to speak about it… Our protest is about the reduction of two Assembly seats (in Barak Valley), despite an increase in its population.
The Congress and AIUDF are at loggerheads, but in Barak Valley, both have strongly opposed the delimitation. Does this create scope for you to come together and oppose it?
Dey Purkayastha: They supported the bandh, that is up to them. But what we are seeing is that the statements of the Chief Minister (Himanta Biswa Sarma) and those of AIUDF leaders complement each other. The CM said they have done delimitation for the khilonjias (indigenous people). What does this mean? That the EC has not done this delimitation, it has been done by the Chief Minister? Meanwhile, AIUDF MLAs have been saying that minority seats have been reduced. On the one hand, the CM is trying to create sentiments among a section of the people by talking about khilojiyas. On the other hand, the AIUDF is trying to create a sentiment by talking about minority votes. By crying ‘Badruddin, Badruddin (reference to AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal)’, the CM is trying to provoke the minorities to gravitate towards the AIUDF. People are able to recognise this. That’s why we are unwilling to do politics with the AIUDF and we will never invite them. It was our mistake that we partnered with them earlier. We will not formally invite them to any movement of ours in the future.
How do you interpret the CM’s statement that the delimitation will protect the interests of the indigenous people?
Dey Purkayastha: He is not the CM only for khilonjiyas. He holds a constitutional post. And while holding that, if he keeps saying that he has become the CM for khilonjiyas, what will happen to the Bengali people who voted for him and helped form this government? The CM is not supposed to be only for the khilonjiya. He is supposed to be for all the people of Assam. If he says these things after taking a constitutional oath, I think it’s a blot on Assam’s history. This might be part of his internal agenda, but to say this openly and outrightly… The aim is to polarise and indulge in politics of Hindu-Muslim, Bengali-Assamese, Rabha-Boro, and divide the different communities of Assam.
[ad_2]
