The final orders of the fourth Delimitation Commission headed by Justice Kuldip Singh, redrawing the boundaries of both parliament and assembly constituencies in Karnataka, for the purposes of election, have just been notified. Karnataka is the 23rd state whose delimitation exercise has been completed. The orders, however, come into force only from the date to be specified by the President. Though the orders cannot be questioned in a court of law, nor modified by parliament or the state legislature concerned, there have been precedents of aggrieved individuals and groups moving court against  previous orders. The delimitation exercise is gigantic and time-consuming and the last was carried out 35 years ago. The population increase since then is almost 87 per cent, but the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly segments has not changed. In the case of Karnataka, it continues to be pegged at 28 and 224 respectively. 

As the Commission had a mandate to keep the strength of the electorate in each assembly constituency at around 2.5 lakh and roughly 18 lakh for a Lok Sabha seat, the demographic and geographical contours of almost every constituency has undergone a change to the obvious discomfiture of the political class.  To illustrate, Uttarahalli, once the largest assembly segment with 16 lakh electorate, has been broken up and merged with five other segments, while Chikpet, the smallest, has grown with the addition of adjoining wards from Basavangudi.

The Commission is being accused of gerrymandering by some political leaders. But the fact that it is coming from all directions shows that the Commission cannot be accused of partisanship. It should also be accepted that an exercise of this magnitude cannot be perfect and free of anomalies. There is considerable heartburn among politicians that changes suggested to the draft orders have not been incorporated in the final orders. For instance, the demand for spreading out the Scheduled Tribes seats more uniformly throughout the state has been ignored. There are also instances like the K R Nagar assembly segment in Mysore parliamentary constituency being attached to Mandya, although the segment falls well within the Mysore district. However, there is much celebration in Bangalore over the number of assembly segments in Bangalore City limits going up from 16 to 28. This amounts to almost one fourth of the magic figure of 113 required to gain a simple majority in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly.