THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE AT HOME

The Union government’s recent decision to start a delimitation exercise in four northeastern states—Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur—and the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has caused much consternation in the Opposition. Assembly elections are due in Assam next year and opposition parties see this as a pre-election manoeuvre. The constitutional validity of the move has also been questioned.

The Opposition’s concern stems from the possible electoral fallout of a likely demographic reconfiguring of assembly constituencies expected in the delimitation exercise, which is technically the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state assembly constituencies to represent changes in population. The exercise also reworks