Former Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev has apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the reduction of two seats in Assam’s Barak Valley because of delimitation of constituencies is not only "detrimental" to the people of the affected constituencies but also “reeks of bias”.

In a four-page letter to Modi on the last day of her Rajya Sabha term that ended on Friday (August 18), Sushmita Dev said: "It is a betrayal of the people of Barak Valley that the state government did not raise any objections about reducing the seats of the two districts of Hailakandi and Karimganj. Less populated areas in other parts of Assam gained seats at the cost of Barak Valley.”

The fact that delimitation cannot be challenged under Article 329 of the Constitution made it even more imperative for the Assam government to stand with the people of the Valley before it was finalised, Dev said in her letter.

Barak Valley had 15 Assembly seats before the delimitation exercise carried out on the basis of the 2001 census but now, it has 13 seats with Hailakandi and Karimgang districts losing a seat each.

Delimitation is an exercise to redraw the boundaries of existing constituencies based on the census.

The letter stated: “What is even a greater shame is that the elected representatives as well as the organisation of the BJP were mute spectators to this injustice. They are clearly a powerless lot without any voice before the chief minister of Assam. Driven by their greed to remain in power they ignored the interest of the people.”

She said she failed to understand why the law ministry allowed a delimitation to take place on the basis of a census (2001) “done twenty-two years ago”.

In the letter to Modi, she said the other “serious lapse” was that the law ministry asked the Election Commission of India to carry out the process relying on Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.

“This section should have been suitably amended by the government beforehand to ensure that Delimitation Commission carried out the process which would have made the decision-making process democratic in which public representatives would have been associate members of the Commission,” she contended.

A source close to Dev said she chose to write to Modi on the last day of her term because she could still use her official letterhead as an MP. "August 18 was her last day as MP. The letter of an MP reaches the PM. It cannot be stalled at the secretariat level," the source said.

Dev, who hails from Silchar in Assam, had joined the Trinamul from the Congress and became a Rajya Sabha MP from Bengal in 2021.

The Election Commission of India had on August 11 published the final order for delimitation of parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in Assam, as provided for in Section 8-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.

The exercise had seen the EC holding consultations with stakeholders before drafting the proposal in March this year and again afterdrafting the proposal in July this year.

According to the final delimitation order, there has been a reduction of seats in Barak Valley from 15 to 13, a rise in Assembly seats from one to two in West Karbi Anglong district and four in Bodoland Territorial Council districts from 11 to 15.

The exercise also saw the number of SC Assembly seats rise from eight to nine and ST seats from 16 to 19. In the final order, the EC has also revised the existing nomenclature of 19 Assembly seats and one parliamentary seat.

However, the number of seats remained the same for both the Assembly (126) and Lok Sabha (14).

Dev’s letter said: “The fact that the representation in the Assembly has been reduced takes away the most important political safeguard for any community. Barak Valley has always been peaceful and various communities have co-existed here without any form of cultural chauvinism. This is our strength but the government of Assam has taken undue advantage of the peace-loving people here.

“We in Barak Valley should not be perceived as a colony of Assam as we contribute economically, socially and politically to the progress of Assam. To reduce the seats on the basis of some absurd formula and the silence of the state government on the deprivation of seats reeks of bias.”