New census to decide delimitation

Considering that delimitation is an elaborate procedure which also involves extensive work by the Election Commission like providing new polling stations and new voters’ lists for the delimited areas, it is believed that the process may not be completed by the next general elections in 2004.

According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, a consensus was arrived at on the issue at the informal meeting of leaders of political parties today in Parliament. ‘‘The Delimitation Act would have to be amended and the Law Ministry is preparing a draft of the amendment. It may be taken up at the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday,’’ Sushma said.

She also said that if the Constitutional amendment does get the approval of the Cabinet, then it may be taken up in Parliament next week. BJP Parliamentary Party spokesperson V.K. Malhotra had convened the meeting which was attended by Law Minister Arun Jaitley and Congress MPs Shivraj Patel and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.

Malhotra said: ‘‘The consensus emerged because it was clear from the statistics that going by the 1991 census, the delimitation would have given only been six or seven more seats for SCs and STs. Whereas going by the 2001 census, there would be 15 more seats.’’

‘‘So considering that the next delimitation would be only in 2026, we decided it would be better to go with higher number of seats for SCs and STs,’’ Malhotra said.

So as new constituencies were getting reserved for SCs and STs, senior leaders of most parties would have had to change their constituencies if the present process had continued. If the Act is amended, it would give a reprieve to all the parties, a reason why consensus does not seem elusive on this issue. Congress chief whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said: ‘‘If the Government is thinking of bringing an amendment to delimitation, we will extend our support. Because we feel that the 2001 census will give more seats to the SCs and STs than the 1991 census.’’

Sushma said that there is no need for an all-party meeting because an agreement has been reached today. ‘‘At the informal meeting today, the parties said they favoured the decision and have no objection if the Government decides to base the delimitation on 2001 census,’’ she said.

On why the Government was hurrying up the amendment, she said: ‘‘Because the process is already on and it is based on the 1991 census. We have to amend the Act before the process can restart on the basis on 2001 census.’’