GUWAHATI: Sushmita Dev, a Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool Congress party, went on a 10-hour hunger strike on July 10 to protest the Election Commission of India's (ECI) proposed delimitation draft.
Dev's hunger strike aimed to bring to light the reduction of assembly seats in Assam's Barak Valley, as well as the ECI's plans to delimit the state's 126 assembly seats and 14 Lok Sabha seats.
Dev expressed her displeasure in a letter to Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on July 7, stating her reservations about the ECI's delimitation draught. She criticized the process's timing, which began after a 47-year hiatus in Assam, as well as the use of 2001 census data as the foundation for delimitation.
Dev cited constitutional provisions, citing Articles 80 and 170 of the Indian Constitution, which declare that seat reallocation is unnecessary until the first census after 2026 is published. She questioned the logic of starting the delimitation process in Assam so soon before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, given that seat numbers cannot be enhanced until after the 2026 census. According to Dev, the base census year should have been adjusted to the more recent 2011 census.
Dev went on to criticise the Election Commission, accusing it of ignoring reservations given by opposition parties during its March 2023 visit to Guwahati. She further claimed that the Chief Minister of Assam's statement regarding delimitation on June 20, 2023, threw doubt on the government's intentions, outweighing the influence of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Assam Accord.
Sushmita Dev requested the Law Minister to reconsider the decision to proceed with the delimitation process in Assam, citing opposition parties' worries and the potential ramifications of this course of action.
On the other hand, a delegation of 11 political parties of Assam protested in front of the Election Commission of India (ECI) office after the commission declined to meet with them over the state's delimitation exercise.
Assam Congress claimed on the microblogging site Twitter that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is utilising ECI as an extension of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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