The Cachar district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organized a massive meeting in Silchar to protest against the proposed delimitation of assembly constituencies in Assam.
The party workers and leaders accused the state’s Urban Development Minister Ashok Singhal, who is also a member of the Delimitation Commission, of being “anti-Bengali” and “biased” towards the Barak Valley.
The meeting was attended by several BJP MLAs, MPs and office-bearers from Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts. They raised slogans against Singhal and demanded his removal from the commission. They also threatened to launch a mass agitation if the delimitation process is not done in a fair and transparent manner.
The BJP leaders alleged that Singhal was trying to reduce the number of Bengali-dominated seats in the Barak Valley and increase the number of seats for the indigenous communities in the Brahmaputra Valley. They claimed that this would affect the political representation and rights of the Bengali-speaking people in Assam.
The BJP leaders also criticized Singhal for his alleged assault and threat to three civil servants in Cachar during his visit to oversee flood relief work on May 21. They said that Singhal had shown disrespect to the government officials and the people of Barak Valley.
The BJP leaders also expressed their dissatisfaction with the performance of Singhal as the guardian minister of the Cachar district. They said that he had failed to deliver on his promises of upgrading the Silchar Municipality Board to a corporation and initiating various development projects in the region.
Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy, BJP Kachar President Bimalendu Roy, Silchar MLA Dipayan Chakraborty and over 500 BJP workers participated in the meeting.
