What is the new delimitation exercise by Assam?

Context

Assam remerged four districts with the ones they were carved out of four days after the Election Commission of India (ECI) notified the initiation of the delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the State on December 27, 2022.
Many welcomed the ECI decision but questioned the use of the 2001 Census figures for the readjustment of the constituencies and an alleged bid to make Muslims less politically relevant.

What is delimitation and how is it carried out?

Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and State Assembly constituencies based on a recent census to ensure each seat has an almost equal number of voters.
It is ideally carried out every few years after a Census by an independent Delimitation Commission formed under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act.
According to the ECI’s order, the Commission will design and finalise its own guidelines and methodology for the purpose of delimiting the constituencies.
During the delimitation exercise, the Commission will keep in mind the physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facility of communication, and public convenience and as far as practicable, the constituencies will be kept as geographically compact areas.
Once a draft proposal for the delimitation of constituencies is finalised by the Commission, it will be published in the Central and State gazettes inviting suggestions and objections from the general public.

Why was delimitation in Assam put on hold ?

Delimitation panels were set up thrice (1952, 1962 and 1972) regularly before the exercise was suspended in 1976 in view of the family planning programmes in the States.
The last Commission was set up in 2002 but before its exercise was completed in 2008, the delimitation of four north-eastern States – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland – was deferred due to “security risks” through separate presidential orders. Jammu and Kashmir was also left out of that delimitation exercise for similar reasons.
Apart from law-and-order, various organisations in Assam were opposed to delimitation in 2008 as they wanted it to be done only after the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to weed out “illegal immigrants”.

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