The exercise to delimit constituencies across the country has got caught in a political quagmire, raising doubts over whether the process will be completed before the next Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
NEW DELHI: The exercise to delimit constituencies across the country has got caught in a political quagmire, raising doubts over whether the process will be completed before the next Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
While the RJD and JMM have openly opposed the exercise in Bihar and Jharkhand respectively for a variety of reasons, the talk in political circles is that there are many who have reservations to the move.
The RJD wants the process to be stopped, while the JMM in Jharkhand has expressed fears that seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Parliament and the state assembly would be obliterated.
This is because several leaders fear the loss of their original constituencies which they have nurtured for long.
In fact, the Delimitation Commission recently pleaded with the government to come out with a Presidential Order for implementing the readjustment in respect of 513 Lok Sabha and 3,726 assembly constituencies in 25 states, for which the process has been completed.
Senior BJP leader V K Malhotra said the government was required to call a meeting of all political parties to discuss the Commission's work. He alleged that the ruling Congress appeared reluctant to implement the Commission's recommendations.
"The constituencies as they stand now are carved out on the basis of the 1971 census. It is now 2007 and a change is required," he said.
Observing that the Commission had sent a report to the President and the law ministry about completing the work in 25 states, sources in the panel said the Election Commission can start the exercise of electoral rolls in the delimited constituencies only after a Presidential notification.
Some recent assembly elections could have been held on the basis of the new exercise but for the delay, they said.
Work on delimitation in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland has been stayed by the Guwahati High Court and the appeal of the Central Government in respect of Manipur was pending in the Supreme Court, the Commission said.
These four states could be "delinked" for the purpose of Presidential Order, it said.
The Commission has followed a transparent procedure while carrying out the exercise, it said. In the past three years, it has held 130 public sittings in 67 cities and towns across the country.
"As a rough estimate, more than Rs 20 crore of public money have so far been spent on the delimitation exercise," it said.
With the Commission having completed and notified the work in 25 states, it would be obligatory for the Central government to have the Presidential Order issued for implementing the readjustment in 513 Lok Sabha and 3,726 assembly constituencies.
"The fact that the work in respect of four northeastern states has been delayed because of court orders is no reason for not implementing the orders already notified by the Delimitation Commission, which have force of law under the Delimitation Act of 2002," it said.
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