“Significant milestone…” CM Himanta Biswa Sarma after President Murmu approves Assam delimitation

President Droupadi Murmu has approved the delimitation notification issued by the Election Commission of India for Assam, state Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday.

Sharing a gazette notification to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Sarma wrote,

“Today the Honorable President has approved the Delimitation Notification issued by the Election Commission of India for Assam. A significant milestone has been achieved in the history of Assam. Jai Maa Bharati Jai Aai Asom.”

The Election Commission of India on Friday published the final order for delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies for Assam, retaining the number of assembly seats at 126 while for Lok Sabha at 14.

The final order was notified and published in the gazettes of the Central Government and the State of Assam.

As per the official notification, nine seats in the legislative assembly are allocated for Scheduled Castes which was earlier eight, while one seat is allocated for Scheduled Castes in the Lok Sabha.
One assembly seat in autonomous districts in West Karbi Anglong District has been increased.

19 assembly constituencies and two parliament constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Reservation of constituencies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been done on the basis of the provisions laid down in Articles 330 and 332 of the Constitution of India.

As per the commission, all assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the state have been delimited based on the 2001 Census as provided in Article 170 and Article 82 of the Constitution.

“The census figures of 2001, as published by the Census Commissioner have thus alone been considered for this purpose. The number of seats in the Legislative Assembly in the State of Assam has been kept at 126 and the number of seats allocated in the House of People for the State of Assam is 14. Articles 170 and 82 laid down that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of each State and the allocation of seats in the House of the People to the States shall not be altered until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published,” the commission said.

The lowest administrative unit has been taken as a ‘Village’ in rural areas and a ‘Ward’ in urban areas. Accordingly, the village and ward have been kept intact and have not been broken anywhere in the State. The proposal has been prepared based on administrative units of development i.e., Development blocks, Panchayats (VCDC in BTAD) and villages in rural areas and Municipal Boards, and wards in urban areas.

The final proposal has been prepared by the Commission after an extensive and robust consultative exercise with diverse stakeholders which included three days of public hearings in Guwahati on the draft proposal in July 2023 and a pre-meeting before drafting of the report in March 2023, the Commission said.

The Commission, during the public hearings on the draft delimitation proposal received many conflicting representations from members of the public, political parties, and organizations for change of nomenclature of some parliamentary and assembly constituencies, highlighting the historical, cultural, political, and ethnic significance of the region.

After considering representations, the Commission in the final order has revised the existing nomenclature of 19 ACs and 01 PC. One Parliamentary and some Assembly Constituencies get paired names such as Darrang-Udalgiri, Hajo- Sualkuchi, Boko-Chaygaon, Nagaon- Batadraba, Bhowanipur- Sorbhog, Algapur- Katlichera, in view of the demand from members of the public.

Delimitation of the Assembly and Parliamentary seats in the State of Assam was last carried out in 1976 based on the 1971 census.