Assam: Congress refuses to meet EC team to discuss delimitation exercise

GUWAHATI: Assam Congress has refused to meet the Election Commission (EC) team that has been touring the state to take stock of the situation regarding the ongoing delimitation exercise of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies.

Bhupen Borah, the president of Assam Pradesh Congress, told reporters here on Monday that he had earlier informed the Chief Election Commissioner about several loopholes in the delimitation exercise in the state. However, the EC did not respond to that despite several reminders.

He said, “I met the CEC, Rajiv Kumar, on March 4 in Delhi and submitted a memorandum regarding the flaws in the ongoing delimitation exercise. He promised a written response. We sent multiple follow-up reminders after the meeting, but they have not responded as of now.”

The Congress leader has also questioned the time allotted to political parties for keeping their views on delimitation.

“Eleven political parties were allowed a cumulative time of 3 hours to meet the EC team, which means each one of us had hardly more than 15-20 minutes to express our views,” Borah said.

According to the Assam Congress chief, due to these reasons, his party has decided to boycott the all-party meeting with the EC team. However, he claimed that the Congress is not against the delimitation exercise.

“We are not against the delimitation, but the EC must address our concerns. It has been decided that until we get a written response to our earlier memorandum, we will not meet the EC team,” Borah added.

The full team of the Election Commission arrived in Guwahati on Sunday evening to meet all stakeholders regarding the delimitation. Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, and other ECI officials would know the ground reality and expectations of the stakeholders and the general public regarding the ongoing delimitation exercise.

During this visit, the Commission will interact with political parties, public representatives, members of civil society, and social organisations regarding delimitation exercise.

They will also meet officials of the state administration, including the Deputy Commissioners of all districts in the state.