The delimitation of constituencies to reduce the impact of minority candidates in their earlier strongholds is one among the many factors that led to the NDA’s performance in the Assam polls, securing a record win of 102 seats in the 126-member assembly.
The 2023 delimitation exercise, which redrew and realigned constituencies with some earlier Muslim-majority seats getting reserved for indigenous communities, played a significant role in the increase of seats for the BJP and its allies in the just-concluded assembly polls.
The minority votebank played a key role, particularly for the Congress and AIUDF, in all previous assembly polls in 35 seats, but delimitation reduced its influence to less than 25.
The 24 seats that the opposition won, mostly in constituencies unaffected by delimitation, include 22 Muslim candidates with both the Congress and AIUDF showing a sharp decline in their erstwhile bastions.
