Congress lashes out against late-night redrawing of Barmer-Balotra district boundaries in Rajasthan

Senior Congress leader and six-time MLA from Gudhamalani Hemaram Choudhary, a former cabinet minister and ex-Leader of Opposition, termed the decision “completely contrary to ground realities”.

“The state government has decided to shift the Dhorimanna sub-division from Barmer district and include it in Balotra district, and the administrative changes made along with the villages in the western and southern areas of Gudamalani sub-division — both these decisions are completely contrary to ground realities, geographical conditions, and the basic facilities of the common people. Such decisions may appear as administrative reforms on paper, but in practice, they make the life of the common citizen even more difficult.”

Citing Maangta village as an example, Choudhary said its residents will now be forced to travel long distances in different directions for tehsil and sub-division-level work, rendering routine governance impractical and against public interest. With the Nokhda sub-division office shifted from Gudamalani to Barmer, several gram panchayats — despite closer social and geographical ties to Dhorimanna and Gudamalani — will now have to approach Barmer for revenue, development, and administrative matters, resulting in a waste of time, money, and labour, he said.

He also said that the changes also raise law-and-order concerns, as Nokhda tehsil has been moved under the distant Barmer police station, potentially delaying police response and complicating access to courts and other key administrative offices for rural residents.

Choudhary demanded that the state government “immediately reconsider” the notification, retain Dhorimanna sub-division within Barmer district and rectify what he termed an “unjust administrative change” affecting western and southern villages of Gudamalani sub-division so that governance remains “accessible, safe, and just for the people”.

However, any reversal now appears unlikely. As per directions issued by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, the deadline for fixing of boundaries of the administrative units in the state was extended multiple times and was finally settled for December 31, 2025, after which “no change shall be made in the boundaries of administrative units i.e. districts, sub-divisions, tehsils, towns, revenue villages, urban local bodies etc. till the completion of the Census-2027 operations.”

The restructuring also alters the demographic profile of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies falling in these areas. While Congress’s Ummeda Ram Beniwal represents Barmer in the Lok Sabha, BJP’s K K Vishnoi is the MLA from Gudhamalani and holds the Minister of State charge for Industry and Commerce Department, among others. Following the changes, Balotra now has 5 sub-divisions, 9 tehsils while Barmer has 7 sub-divisions and 11 tehsils.