Kejriwal exhorts Assam voters to choose AAP as alternative to BJP

GUWAHATI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday exhorted the people of Assam to choose Aam Admi Party (AAP) as an alternative to BJP and give AAP a chance to work in the state.

The Delhi Chief Minister was on a visit to the Northeastern state to solidify AAP's presence in the state and to meet the AAP state workers.

The AAP supremo questioned Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's work and accused him of doing "hate politics".

While addressing Sankalp Sabha, Kejriwal said, " People of Assam gave chance to every political party still no change happened. The current government of Assam came back in 2014, and our AAP came in 2015 in Delhi."

He added, "Delhi got so developed, but Assam still didn't develop. What did Hemanta Biswa do? Nothing, he just did hate politics."

Lauding his governance in Delhi and Punjab, he stated, "There is unemployment in Assam. Paper leaks happen in Assam; someone is playing with the future of children. No paper leaks happen in Punjab and Delhi. If we get a chance in Assam we will work here and give our best. We gave employment to 12 lakh youth in Delhi."

Kejriwal visited Assam with his Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann.

On Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the 126 assembly seats and 14 parliamentary seats in Assam would remain the same after the completion of the process of redrawing of boundaries of the constituencies in the State.

Addressing a press conference here in connection with the ongoing delimitation of constituencies in the State, the CEC said, "We held discussions with nine recognised and State political parties and other organisations in the last two days. We also met around 60 civil groups and organisations. We will try to accommodate all suggestions of the political parties and organisations in the delimitation exercise".

The chief election commissioner said that those who participated in the exercise included the TMC, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), NCP, Asom Gana Parishad, AIDUF, Bodoland People's Front, United People's Party Liberal, and three more registered parties, Assam Jatiya Parishad, Lok Raksha Party and Raijor Dal.

The election official said that they had decided to discuss with the stakeholders before the publication of the draft of the delimitation exercise.

"126 assembly seats and 14 parliamentary seats will remain the same. We have given time by extending the date to April 15 and during that time anybody can give their suggestion to the ECI. We will publish a draft and will give one-month time for taking suggestions on it" the chief election commissioner said.

Rajiv Kumar further said that ECI got suggestions and recommendations from the stakeholders, and has noted their suggestions

"One suggestion they gave was instead of taking the 2001 Census, we should take the 2021 Census. Another suggestion they gave was to increase the parliamentary constituencies, instead of keeping them constant. A suggestion was that there should be a provision of 30 per cent variation in the areas of lower Assam, where the population growth is low. One point was raised when delimitation was stopped in 2008, why it has been started all of a sudden, and when delimitation is due in 2026, why it is being carried out now?" the CEC said.

He further added, "These suggestions were competing and conflicting claims, having people on both sides of the claim".

Responding to the Congress Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhupen Kumar Borah's allegations that the delimitation exercise is "match-fixing", Rajiv Kumar said, "We are habituated to hearing this. There is no point of fixation because first disclosure was done and then we took suggestions before the publication of draft".

The process of the delimitation exercise was started in December last year. It was in pursuance of the request received from the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

Delimitation falls under Section 8A of the Re Representation of the People Act, 1950. Under the provisions of the Delimitation Act of 1972, the last delimitation of constituencies in the State of Assam was done on the basis of census figures in 1971 by the then Delimitation Commission in 1976.