Opposition Raijor Dal protests against delimitation outside ECI hearing

Guwahati, Jul 21 (PTI) Several members of the opposition Raijor Dal (RD) were detained on Friday while staging a protest against the delimitation process outside the venue of hearings on the draft proposal by the full bench of the ECI.

The first two days of the hearings had passed off peacefully.

As RD chief and Sivsagar MLA Akhil Gogoi and a few others walked into the venue to place his representation before the ECI, some members of his party started shouting slogans at the gate.

The party’s leaders Dharjya Konwar and Pranab Deka led the members in raising slogans against the delimitation process.

As security personnel prevented them from carrying out the protest, they tried to block the road outside the venue.

The protestors resisted attempts by the security personnel to clear them from the road, finally leading to their detention.

They were forcibly put into a waiting bus and taken away from the venue.

Further details of their detention were awaited.

The full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) had reached here on Wednesday to hold a series of public hearings on draft delimitation proposals for the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies of Assam.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel along with senior officials of the ECI are holding the three-day hearing at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra complex here.

During this public hearing, the ECI has been holding discussions with various stakeholders, including political parties and civil society organisations, over the draft proposals on the delimitation exercise.

The last delimitation exercise in Assam took place in 1976 on the basis of the 1971 Census.

Many political parties have knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court against the entire delimitation exercise.

The ECI had on June 20 notified the draft delimitation document by retaining the number of Assembly seats in Assam at 126 and the Lok Sabha constituencies at 14. The state has seven Rajya Sabha seats.

As per the draft, the Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Castes have been increased to nine from eight and for Scheduled Tribes to 19 from 16.

For the Parliamentary constituencies, two have been proposed under the ST category and one for the SC community.

The poll panel has also planned to alter the geographical boundaries of most of the constituencies, both Assembly and Lok Sabha, while eliminating some seats and creating a few new ones.

An ECI team had earlier visited Assam on March 26-28 and held interactions with political parties, public representatives, civil society members, social organisations, members of the public and officers regarding the delimitation exercise.

In total, representations from 11 political parties and 71 other organisations were received and considered during that visit of the ECI.