The final report published by the Delimitation Commission headed by Supreme Court judge Kuldip Singh, has caused “heartburn” among leaders of different political parties as it has by and large ignored their suggestion to spread out the reserved Assembly seats across the State instead of confining them to a few districts.

However, these leaders are happy that the commission has conceded their demand for reserving at least one Lok Sabha seat in each revenue-division instead of confining such reservation to one or two divisions.

The proposed “lopsided” reservation -- of just one Lok Sabha seat in one division (i.e. Gulbarga) -- in the draft report while leaving most seats for the general category in other regions, had caused much consternation among leaders of all political parties. As per the draft, while Bidar, Gulbarga, Chitradurga, Bangalore IV and Kolar were proposed to be reserved for SCs, the Raichur and Bellary seats were proposed to be reserved for STs.

But, now in the final report, the commission has reserved Gulbarga (Gulbarga division), Bijapur (Belgaum division), Chitradurga and Kolar (both Bangalore division) and Chamarajnagar (Mysore division) Lok Sabha seats for SCs, while retaining the Raichur and Bellary Lok Sabha seats for STs as proposed in the draft.

Skewed distribution
The leaders of various political parties are unhappy that unlike Lok Sabha seats, the reservation is not spread out all over the State for Assembly constituencies.

Of the total 15 ST seats, Raichur and Bellary districts account for nine. These are Raichur Rural, Manvi, Maski, Deodurga, Kampli, Bellary, Sandur, Koodligi and Sirguppa.

The remaining six are: Yamakanamardi (Belgaum), Surpur (Gulbarga), Jagalur(Davangere), Molakalmur and Challakere (Chitradurga) and HD Kote (Chamarajanagar).

Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu are the three districts where no seat has been reserved for any category.
Even though Justice Singh had assured leaders from Chickmagalur district during the public hearing held here that he would consider their demand for retaining the existing Chickmagalur Lok Sabha  seat by adding three more Assembly constituencies to the existing five segments in the district, the final report has not conceded the demand.

Similarly, it has ignored the plea not to reduce the number of constituencies in Kodagu district from three to two.
It is said that geographical contours of at least 95 per cent of the Assembly seats have undergone changes. 
However, some important constituencies which have remained unchanged are: Jewargi represented by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly N Dharam Singh and KR Pet seat represented by Speaker Krishna.

85 SITTING MLAS TO BE ‘DISTURBED’
About 85 sitting MLAs, including eight sitting ministers, may have to look for other seats as their constituencies have either been scrapped via merger with other Assembly segments or reserved for SC/STs or dereserved for the general category.
Some of the prominent leaders ‘affected’ are: Mallikarjun Kharge (Gurmitkal), D K Shivakumar (Sathnur), M P Prakash (Huvina Hadagali), Chennigappa (Koratagere), Revu Naik Belamagi (Kamlapur), D T Jaikumar (Nanjanagud), S A Ravindranath (Mayakonda), Dr G Parameshwar (Madhugiri), Gurupadappa Nagamarpally (Aurad).