Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has accused the Opposition Congress of trying to delegitimise the delimitation exercise in the state. Taking to social media on Sunday, Sarma, who is currently on an election tour of Bengal, said that delimitation was a “long overdue correction after decades of political neglect and vote-bank appeasement”. “Assam’s delimitation is not a conspiracy; it was a long overdue correction after decades of political neglect and vote-bank appeasement. It, in fact, reflects the aspirations of the people of Assam and is yet only a stop gap arrangement to prevent our civilisation from being devoured by illegal migration,” Sarma stated on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
The chief minister stated that Congress’ “ill-informed Cabal” has been excessively using the term, “gerrymandering” to delegitimise Assam’s delimitation exercise and in turn misinform the nation. “Don’t fall for their propaganda,” he warned. “For years, especially in the Lower Assam region, unchecked demographic changes reshaped constituencies while Congress and its ecosystem chose silence because it suited their electoral interests. The real distortion of representation happened then, not now,” the chief minister said.
He said that when boundaries were now being realigned to reflect ground realities, the Congress leaders, backed by the Left ecosystem, are crying “gerrymandering.” “That argument is not just weak; it is outright hypocritical. They are not defending democracy; they are defending a system that benefited them politically,” the chief minister stated.
Sarma further said that delimitation was about restoring balance and safeguarding indigenous Assamese representation. “It ensures that those rooted in the land, its culture, language and identity, are not politically sidelined in their own state,” he said. The chief minister said that “those opposing the delimitation exercise are uncomfortable because it challenges the very imbalance they once exploited and pushed Assam to the perils”.
