How delimitation gave a boost to BJP and allies in Assam
· Scroll
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The landslide victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in the Assam assembly elections came as no surprise to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
One of the reasons, he told reporters after the result, was the delimitation exercise carried out in 2023, which ensured that Muslim voters would play a decisive role only in 23 of the state’s 126 constituencies.
“So we knew that at least 102-103 seats were winnable for us,” he said.
As Scroll had reported, the delimitation exercise in Assam had been conducted ostensibly to protect the political rights of the state’s indigenous people. But the manner in which constituency borders were redrawn effectively reduced Muslim representation in the state.
Sarma was not far off the mark. The BJP ended up with 82 seats, and its allies, the Bodo Peoples Front and the Asom Gana Parishad, won ten seats each, taking the tally of the alliance to 102.
In the last two Assembly elections, the BJP had peaked at 60 seats. This time around, it increased its tally by 22 seats.
How much was delimitation a factor in this boost? Scroll’s analysis shows that the BJP-led alliance benefited from the exercise in 19 seats.
This includes five new seats created in the tribal areas of the state, two erstwhile Muslim-majority seats that...