Needlepoint: The Enigma that is Delimitation

The Enigma that is Delimitation

By Amba Charan Vashishth

At the height of controversy over delimitation of constituencies in Himachal Pradesh, the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission in 2002 declared: He will go by the convenience of the public and not by that of the politicians. But actually, with the Government of India now deciding to the accept the report of Delimitation Commission for Himachal along with other States where election process has already been completed, the Election Commission and the Delimitation Commission have in fact achieved exactly the reverse and ignored the "convenience of the public".

In 2002, the Delimitation Commission was trying to run against time to complete the process in time for the HP assembly elections then due in February 2003. But for some reason or the other, this could not be done and the elections were held as per the old delimitation. But it was then thought that the process of delimitation would be completed well before next elections due in February 2008 (though held in December 2007) to hold elections as per the new recommendations.

It is worth mentioning that although the report of the Delimitation Commission was notified by the HP Government as back as January 2007, yet in the elections held after 11 months in December 2007, the Report was totally ignored.

The elections to Gujarat assembly in December 2007 too were held according to the old delimitation. So about the States of Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya going to the polls in March this year. In Karnataka elections due in May 2008 the report of the Delimitation Commission is again likely to be ignored.

In all fairness, the elections to every State assembly should be held as per the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission to cater to the "convenience of the public" instead of creating practical problems for them later on.

The elections held as per the old system have created a very anomalous situation, at least for the people who voted in the elections concluded less than a month ago in the States of Himachal and Gujarat, and so will they in the three North-eastern States.

Being more acquainted with the ground realities in Himachal, I would like to concentrate more on the situation that has developed in this State. The situation in other States can be no different.

Not the one they voted

The kanungo circle being the unit for re-drawl of constituencies, the boundaries of almost every constituency stand altered. Consequently, the persons whom people voted in the last elections are no longer their representatives and the one they did not vote are to be their 'elected' representatives. In many cases they may have voted for a person who belongs to some other party and won, but in the newly drawn constituency, the person may belong to a different party. The elected 'representative' too may not give to them that much care and attention because they were not the people instrumental in his victory.

No MLA to represent

A new assembly constituency of Manali has been added to the Kullu district increasing the number of its MLAs to four from the existing three. The voters of the newly created constituency of Manali have now been left high and dry with nobody to represent them in the House because their area falls in the constituency of none of the three individuals who won the election. The latter will now only concentrate on the areas from where they have to seek re-election next time.

No constituency to represent

The number of assembly constituencies in Kangra, the biggest district of the State which sends almost one-fourth of MLAs (16 in a house of 68) has been reduced to 15. The Thural constituency, which the incumbent Irrigation & Public Health Minister Mr. Ravinder Singh Ravi has been representing and won for the fourth time consecutively, has been obliterated and he is left with no area to represent, his present area having been fragmented and merged with other adjoining constituencies.

Nowhere to go

The number of constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes has been increased by one, from the present 16 to 17 (one-fourth of the House). Unreserved constituencies of Chintpurni (Una), Baijnath (Kangra), Rohroo (Shimla) and Solan have been reserved for scheduled castes and the present reserved constituencies of Gagret (Una), Pragpur (Kangra) and Kasumpati (Shimla) have been de-reserved. Consequently, the MLAs elected only a month back, including former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh (Rohroo) and Health Minister Dr. Rajeev Bindal (Solan), have been left high dry with no areas to contest next time. Mr Virbhadra Singh may opt from some other constituency in Shimla district, but the fate of the remaining three is doomed.

As a result of this delimitation, the people inhabiting these newly reserved and de-reserved seven constituencies will suffer because the incumbent representatives will lose interest in nursing the areas that voted for them because they have not to seek votes from these constituencies for at least three decades hence when another delimitation of constituencies may take place. The last delimitation took place in 1972.

The only redeeming feature will be that the next Lok Sabha elections in 2009 will be held as per the newly redrawn parliamentary constituencies. Although the four parliamentary constituencies too stand redrawn, yet the people will have the opportunity to vote for an individual and a political party of their choice under the new set up. ***