Highly-placed party sources said even the increase in urban seats would actually benefit Congress, unlike what was being claimed by BJP, as had been shown in the last Bangalore Mahanagara Palike elections.
The sources said a strong message would be sent to the SC and ST communities by holding elections after effecting delimitation as that would mean increase of SC seats from current 33 to 36 and ST seats from current two to 15, a total increase of 16 seats for the two segments in the state Assembly.
“Since the process has been initiated by the Congress-led UPA government, if we hold the polls post delimitation, it will be a positive signal from our side to the two sections,” sources said.
Post delimitation, the ST representation in Lok Sabha from the state will increase from zero to two and that of SCs from four to five, a total increase of three. The AICC view comes days after central leaders of Congress from Karnataka told the party general secretary in charge of the state that it would make perfect sense to hold the elections in delimited constituencies.
