The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to issue an Ordinance to disassociate Jharkhand and the North-Eastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland from the delimitation process, thus paving the way for notification of delimitation in the 24 remaining states, including Karnataka. However, there were strong signals from the government that the forthcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka would be held as per the current political map as the Congress and other political parties appeared reluctant to fight elections under the proposed changes.

A section within Congress however favoured holding of the polls with the redrawn constituencies “as even though it will be a gamble, it will be worth taking the chance as a lot of new and young faces will be able to fight the elections, giving the electorate better options”.

Highly-placed sources in the government said there were two options regarding the timing of the notification, keeping in mind the Karnataka scenario. It could be immediate signing of the notification by the President for the 24 states, thus putting the ball in the Election Commission’s court to decide if the state polls could be held in delimitated constituencies. The other option was to get the notification issued at the same time the Bill, replacing the Ordinance to amend the Delimitation Act, 2002, gets passed by Parliament; which can happen only in March after the presentation of the Union Budget,” sources revealed.

The sources added that while the second option seemed more likely, especially as the Election Commission is understood to have informally indicated to the government that it would not be possible to hold the Karnataka elections with the reshaped constituencies, as there was not much time left, the final decision on the timing of the notification will be taken by the Prime Minister after he returns from his scheduled China tour.

“Under Article 82 of the Constitution, the President will notify a date from when the delimitation will come into effect. That date will be a political decision. It (the notification) can come this evening or 2-4 months later,” the sources said.

Interestingly, the sources noted, the Ordinance only mentions Jharkhand specifically, without mentioning any of the four North-Eastern states by name. Jharkhand has been disassociated from the process as the issues, emerging out of resulting decrease in ST seats in the state, remains to be resolved.

Information & Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi said, after the Cabinet meeting, that the delimitation process has been completed for 3,726 Assembly and 513 Lok Sabha constituencies.