Political parties' stand on delimitation exercise
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 14, 2025 -

THE Governor might be in concurrence with the political parties regarding anomalies in the 2001 census report, as claimed by a political representative, but it is unlikely that such a congruency would suffice in impressing upon the Supreme Court to retract its directive for conduct of the pending delimitation exercise in the state on the basis of the existing census data in case the political organisations do not plead formally before the apex court and the Election Commission of India to keep in abeyance relevant processes for rejigging of the assembly constituencies in the state.

Nevertheless, representatives of non-BJP and non-Congress parties calling on Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Monday to air scepticism on authenticity of the 2001 census report and propose conduct of the delimitation exercise after completion of fresh head count underscores that the political organisations are aware about possible public backlash in case no effort is made to rectify the flaws, if any, in the census report.

Other issues of concern placed before the Governor relate to delay in conducting elections for the district councils, municipalities and Panchayat and appointment of ad-hoc committees to run the local bodies along with the proposal to the Governor to initiate immediate steps to conduct the elections.

While it is heartening to learn that the Governor gave patient hearing to the concerns raised by representatives of political parties and shared personal perspective that it would be better for the state to go for the delimitation exercise after completion of the next census exercise slated for 2026, the political parties should not live under the impression that placing their complaints to the Governor would result in deferment of the delimitation exercise.

Rather there must be a thorough explanation before the central authorities on the reasons for proposing deferment of the said delimitation exercise, failing which the ECI would be left with no option other than heeding the Supreme Court's directive.

Moreover, even if the 15 representatives of political parties made no mention about the growing demand that implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) must precede the delimitation exercise, almost all the political organisations and majority of the state's population share the same opinion that the realignment of the assembly constituencies without cleansing the electoral rolls would be detrimental to socio-political interest of the bonafide citizens and akin to legitimising assimilation of illegal immigrants.

Apart from former chief minister N Biren being one of the most vocal advocates of NRC and having flagged concern over thousands of illegal immigrants finding permanent settlement in the state on numerous occasions, students and civil organisations too have been insisting on conduct of the proposed delimitation exercise only after rectification of the flawed 2001 census data, and almost all the political organisations active in the state batting for implementation of the NRC prior to rejigging of the electoral constituencies.

Such unanimity sums up the general sentiment against the directive of the Supreme Court to conduct the delimitation exercise within the specified period.

As mentioned earlier, with exception of the Kuki-Zo community, which hasn't commented on either the NRC or the delimitation issue, all other communities seem to be unanimous on updating the NRC in view of the strong suspicion that the unnatural population growth rate of the Kuki-Zo people and sharp increase in the number of Kuki villages in the hill districts are primarily due to the influx from neighbouring Myanmar since the last many decades.

Thus, it is suggested that the political organisations air general sentiment of the state's masses and apprise the central authorities on the need for detecting and deporting illegal immigrants prior to conduct of the delimitation exercise.