Delimited seats give saffron party a multiplier effectDelimitation proved the wild card in Assam’s first assembly poll since the boundaries of constituencies were redrawn in 2023, cutting the number of Muslim-majority seats from 35 to 22 to leave BJP’s two main rivals — Congress and AIUDF — fighting an existential battle against each other. Although the number of assembly seats remained unchanged at 126, delimitation altered the representation matrix, keeping the number of Muslim MLAs below 25 while making indigenous communities the decisive factor in 103 seats, up from 90. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had been saying all along that delimitation would ensure indigenous communities held over 100 of the 126 seats at stake. The poll outcome delivered a bonus for BJP. Congress improved its position within the shrunk Muslim-majority belt at the cost of perfume tycoon Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF.

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The state’s new electoral geography had rocked the opposition’s balance even before the polls. Several sitting AIUDF legislators jumped ship, joining NDA constituent AGP to ensure they wouldn’t miss the bus in the scramble for fewer tickets than before. For BJP, this was a strategic fit, increasing NDA’s prospects in seats where the Muslim vote would be decisive. While the script didn’t exactly play out as planned, AIUDF ending up with just two seats was just what BJP would have wanted. The 2023 delimitation exercise not only reduced the weight of constituencies where Bengali-origin Muslim voters had long held sway but also expanded the number of seats reserved for STs from 16 to 19. SC seats increased by one to nine. The redrawn seats included Congress strongholds across lower, central and southern Assam with a high concentration of Muslim voters. Assam’s politics has long been shaped by illegal immigration from Bangladesh.

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The Assam Accord of 1985, born out of a mass agitation, fixed March 25, 1971, as the cutoff for citizenship. But there have been allegations of continued illegal influx even after that. BJP has consistently argued that the state’s political trajectory should be determined by indigenous communities rather than migrantorigin Muslim populations. Voting patterns among minorities in the state were historically aligned with the party in govt until BJP formed its first ministry in 2016. That dynamic has shifted further after delimitation, with voters in the remaining Muslim-majority seats backing Congress amid concerns about whether their interests are safe under BJP.