ULFA accord, delimitation reveal Assam CM’s strong affinity for Bangladeshi vote bank: PVM

Guwahati: Pravajan Virodhi Mancha (PVM) on Friday said Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s latest endeavour is to push for delimitation as a solution to Bangladeshi influx, will serve the purpose of addressing national BJP leaders of carrying out delimitation based on religious demography.

“It will protect the migrants who would have been deprived of access to land, jobs, business etc if the three expert committee reports were implemented,” PVM convenor and Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika told reporters here on Friday.

“Since becoming the chief Minister in 2021, Himanta Biswa Sarma has been singularly focusing on delimitation as the sole means to safeguard the indigenous in Assam from becoming a minority by 2040 to the exclusion of all other measures and safeguards recommended by the Central Government constituted Clause vi Committee, the Brahma Committee and the Upamanyu Hazarika Commission report to the Supreme Court accepted by both central and state governments.

“Apart from including delimitation in the accord with the ULFA pro-talks group, furthermore, on January 10, 2024, he made further announcements of Barpeta, Majuli, and Batadraba Vaishnavite Centres being declared protected Blocks,” Hazarika said. 

Hazarika said Sarma has already rejected the recommendations of these committees, latching onto Delimitation as a safeguard for preserving indigenous identity.

“None of the three committees, the public discourse in the last 45 years (since Assam Agitation) has delimitation been remotely considered as a safeguard for indigenous people,” Hazarika further said.

He added that the reason for this is Sarma’s strong affinity for the Bangladeshi vote bank serving his political agenda.

“Delimitation is redefining constituency boundaries to account for population growth and maintain parity across constituencies in terms of population size,” said the SC lawyer.

He said the voters of one constituency will become voters in another upon delimitation, but the numbers of Bangladeshi voters will remain the same.

For instance, the redrawing of Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency has made it a Bangladeshi-origin majority and for all time lost to the indigenous.