Sarah Ameer
The legislative assembly elections are scheduled to be held on 9th April 2026 in Assam, an Indian state, to select 126 members of Assam legislative assembly. Assam is home to 11 million Muslims which make up 34% of Assam’s total population. The 2023 decision by the Indian Election Commission to redraw boundaries of electoral constituencies has turned the electoral landscape upside down for Muslim population. According to Al-Jazeera, the Indian Election Commission’s manual for delimitation states that boundaries should be redrawn in a way that no area of one constituency is cut off from the rest of that constituency by being surrounded by another constituency. The manual states that apart from contiguity, geographical features, better connectivity, means of communication … [are to be] kept in view and areas divided by rivers…forests or ravines … will not be put in the same constituency. However, it comes as no surprise that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has blatantly violated the principles while redrawing the electoral boundaries.
Katigorah and Badarpur are two areas separated by the Barak river. However, in the recent Gerrymandering exercise, the Hindu areas from Badarpur have been merged with Katigorah, significantly impacting the voter demographics in Katigorah. Earlier, Katigorah had an equal Hindu and Muslim population. While the BJP would select a Hindu candidate from this constituency, Congress and All India United Front would choose a Muslim candidate thus maintaining the balance. Before the gerrymandering exercise took place, Katigorah had 1,74,000 voters; however, after the merger, Katigorah has turned into a Hindu majority constituency. Owing to that, major political parties have picked Hindu candidates, which in turn has significantly compromised Muslim representation in the constituency.
Like Katigorah, constituencies across the Assam state have met similar fate. Hindu voters from Muslim majority constituencies have been added into the Barpeta constituency, making it a Hindu majority constituency. Similarly, three of the areas in the Barak valley namely, Algapur, Hailakandi, and Katlicherra were previously mostly represented by Muslim candidates chosen by either Congress or All India United Front. However, Hailankandi region has now been turned into a Hindu majority constituency after the Hindu population from Algapur and Katlicheera was added into Hailakandi. With the addition of Hindu population, the chances for a Muslim candidate making it to the Barpeta and Hailakandi assemblies are bleak.
Yogendra Yadav, an analyst at Indian Express, calls this “communal gerrymandering” and compares it with the 18th century U.S gerrymandering exercise which was carried out to favour a certain group over others. Yadav asserts that the Indian state has followed the techniques of cracking, packing and stacking. Through cracking, Muslim population has been scattered into different constituencies to diminish their probability of winning even a single seat. Similarly, by employing the technique of packing, Muslim voters from multiple Muslim dominating areas have been concentrated into one constituency. Though the technique of packing ensures success with a huge margin in that particular constituency, it curbs the potential electoral influence in all other constituencies thus restricting them to minimum seats. Similarly, through stacking, the Hindu areas not populated enough to create an electoral impact have been converted into majority by adding them all into one constituency.
The exercise of gerrymandering flies in the face of democratic principles as it creates an uneven playing field, giving undue favour to a dominant group i.e. Indian Hindus in this case. What is even more disturbing is the audacity of a BJP political figure who made no secret of his bigotry. During the election campaign in Barpeta, the Assam cabinet minister, Jayanta Mallah Baruah said, “We delimited the constituency on such lines that there’s no point for miyas (a derogatory term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims) to try and win it this time”. The policy of manipulating electoral boundaries by the world’s largest democracy has further pushed the already state-oppressed Muslims of Assam to the periphery, completely crushing their hopes for a better future in a so-called secular state.
The writer is a freelance columnist
