Delimitation puts Assam’s 3 Congress MPs in fix over LS seats

Even as the BJP Saturday announced 11 candidates for Assam’s 14 seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the wait for the Congress to declare its nominees is only getting longer as last year’s delimitation process weighs heavily on all its three sitting MPs from the state.

While the BJP had won 9 seats last time, the Congress had won three.

Now, changes stemming out of the delimitation process have left two Congress parliamentarians – Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi and Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi – both vying for the Nagaon seat, while Barpeta MP Abdul Khaleque is seeking a ticket from Dhubri even as the party leadership is reportedly keen on fielding Samaguri MLA Rakibul Hussain from the seat.

The Election Commission (EC) finalised the delimitation of Assam’s parliamentary and Lok Sabha constituencies, in August last year, amid protests by Opposition parties as well as various community organisations, the first such exercise since 1976. One of the most contested points was the Opposition’s allegation that constituencies had been altered in such a way that minority voters had got concentrated in a few seats, hence reducing the number of segments where they could play a significant role.

The last delimitation exercise was carried out across the country in 2002, except in the north east states and Jammu and Kashmir due to law and order issues. In March 2020, the Centre constituted the Delimitation Commission and the poll panel went ahead with the exercise in Assam last year after receiving inputs from the Centre that the law and order situation in the state had “significantly improved”.

The delimitation had caused fissures within the BJP too, with former Union minister and four-time Nagaon MP Rajen Gohain stepping down from his