No consensus on delimitation of constituencies

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 13. Consensus eluded an all-party meeting, convened by the Union Government, on delimitation of constituencies and rotation of constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The meeting, convened by the Union Law and Justice Minister, Mr. Ram Jethmalani, and attended by leaders of recognised national and state parties, ended without any agreement on the modalities of the delimitation of constituencies and rotation of reserved constituencies.

The agenda note circulated by the Government sought views of parties on (i) amendment of the Constitution to further extend the embargo on undertaking fresh delimitation up to the year 2026 or until the figures of the census to be conducted thereafter become available.

(ii) Delimitation of constituencies contained within a State, without altering the number of seats in Legislatures presently allotted, so as to remove the imbalances caused due to uneven growth of population/electorate in different constituencies.

(iii) To allow rotation of reserved constituencies and

(iv) To entrust the job of delimitation along with all associated issues to the Election Commission on a permanent basis.

There was unanimity among the party representatives on the need to continue the freeze on fresh delimitation and delimitation of constituencies without altering the number of seats in each State/Union Territory, but the parties were divided on the manner in which the task should be undertaken.

The leaders differed on the proposal to entrust the job to the Election Commission. Parties like the Congress were of the view that entrusting the job of delimitation to the Commission would increase the load of an already overburdened Election Commission. They were sharply divided on the subject at an all-party convened by the Election Commission last month.

The Union Cabinet had already approved a proposal to further amend the Constitution to continue the freeze on delimitation from 2001 to 26.

Lifting the freeze on delimitation would benefit States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which were not a success story in curbing population and hurt States like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh as the number of seats of a State in the Lok Sabha were linked to its population.

However, all parties were unanimous on the need to rationalise the size of constituencies within a State/Union Territory in view of serious distortions that have cropped in the last few decades. The case of Delhi illustrates the point. While the size of Outer Delhi constituency is over 20 lakh, the size of Chandini Chowk is less than eight lakh.

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