The Manipur BJP would soon constitute a 13-member committee to look into the issues of delimitation of electoral boundaries exercise in the state, senior party leader Kh Ibomcha said on Thursday.
Ibomcha, who is also an MLA of the Lamlai Assembly constituency, said that the BJP party also reiterated that it has no objection to delimitation of constituencies in the state if it is based on an authentic census.
In a recent meeting, the BJP MLAs of Manipur discussed the proposed delimitation exercise and decided to form a 13-member delimitation committee to deal with the serious issue.
The party leaders are making all efforts to resolve the matter in the state as soon as possible, Ibomcha told the media.
He said that of the 13 members from various sections, 12 will be MLAs and one will be from the office bearers of the state BJP Pradesh committee.
It was proposed that the delimitation likely be conducted based on a 2001 census report, but it was full of irregularities, and then the delimitation exercise would not be correct, Ibomcha pointed out.
The BJP has been demanding the implementation of the NRC before carrying out the delimitation exercise in the state.
The opposition Congress in Manipur on Wednesday opposed any possible delimitation exercises in the state based on the 2001 census report, and the party demanded a thorough rectification of the census data before re-demarcation of electoral boundaries.
Congress Vice-President in Manipur, Hareshwar Goswami, had said that the issue of inaccuracy in the 2001 census arose after detecting a disproportionate growth rate of people in nine subdivisions across three districts in the state.
The Congress leader said that the party supports delimitation, but it must be based on a correct census without any errors. Everyone knows that the 2001 census had many irregularities, he had claimed.
“Most people, political parties, civil societies and social organisations in Manipur are not opposed to the delimitation process. Most political parties, civil societies, social organisations and others are asking for it to be conducted based on a genuine Census,” Goswami pointed out.
He had said that the Congress’s stance on re-demarcation of electoral boundaries is that the exercise must be conducted on the basis of a correct Census and the delimitation to defer till 2026.
On March 25, leaders of 16 political parties in Manipur held a significant meeting and urged the Central government to defer delimitation of constituencies till 2026, when national delimitation would be undertaken with the new census figures.
CPI-M Manipur state Secretary Kshetrimayum Santa, who was one of the three convenors of the March 25 meeting, had said that the meeting had resolved that the delimitation in Manipur should not be held till the rectification of the errors in the 2001 census in Manipur.
“We have also decided to urge the Central government to defer the delimitation till 2026, when national delimitation would be undertaken with the new census figures,” Santa had said.
The 16 political parties’ meeting follows a recent directive from the Supreme Court, which has instructed the completion of the pending delimitation exercise in the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Assam within the next three months.
