EC releases draft delimitation proposal for Assam, reserved seats increased

Total number of Assembly seats remains same; SC reserved seats increased from 8 to 9, ST from 16 to 19.

The Election Commission has sought suggestions and objections till July 11 and will visit the state next month. (Express photo)

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The Election Commission on Tuesday released its draft proposal for delimitation in Assam, increasing the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes from eight to nine and for Scheduled Tribes from 16 to 19.

The EC invited suggestions and objections from the public till July 11 and announced that the three-member panel would visit the state for a public hearing in July. As per Articles 170 and 82 of the Constitution, the number of Assembly seats in a state and the number of Lok Sabha seats from a state are not to be altered till the first census after 2026 is published. As a result, the number of Assembly seats and Lok Sabha seats in Assam would remain 126 and 14 respectively.

The delimitation was carried out on the basis of the 2001 Census, the first such exercise in Assam since 1976. Among the Lok Sabha seats, two seats were proposed to be reserved for STs and one for SCs.

In a statement, the EC said it had increased one seat in the autonomous districts in West Karbi Anglong and increased the assembly seats in Bodoland districts from 16 to 19. The Diphu and Kokrajhar Parliamentary seats were retained as reserved for STs, while the Lakhimpur seat remained unreserved. The Diphu Parliamentary constituency comprises six Assembly constituencies of three autonomous districts, it said. Two Lok Sabha seats were given to the Barak Valley districts – Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj. One Parliamentary seat was named Kaziranga.

Apart from the 2001 Census, the draft proposal was based on administrative units – development blocks, panchayats and villages in rural areas and municipal wards in urban areas – the EC said.

“Efforts have been made to keep all constituencies, as far as practicable, as geographically compact areas, and in delimiting them, regard has been had to the physical features, density of population, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and public convenience,” the EC said.

It added that the number of districts had increased from 10 to 31 from the last delimitation till now. The EC said it had received several representations about the “uneven population growth”.

“While some districts have undergone more population growth since last delimitation, some districts have witnessed less population growth. It is seen that the population density in the districts of the State varies from 38 persons per square km in Dima Hasao district to 1096 persons per square km in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district,” the EC said.

The draft proposal divided the districts into three categories based on 10% margin on the average population density of the state (338 persons per sq. km). The number of seats in each district were based on the three categories.