More than 85 MLAs in the recently dissolved Assembly will have to either look for other constituencies or take political sanyas as their constituencies will either be abolished through a merger with other assembly segment or reserved for SC/STs or dereserved for the general category.
Some of the prominent leaders who will lose their constituency are: Mallikarjun Kharge(Gurmitkal), M P Prakash (Huvina Hadagali), D K Shivakumar (Sathanur), Chennigappa (Koratagere), Dr G Parameshwar (Madhugiri), Gurupadappa Nagamarpally (Aurad) and Vaijanath Patil (Chincholi).
Constituencies
Some of the constituencies which will remain unchanged are the Jewargi Assembly represented by the former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh and the K R Pet seat represented by sitting Assembly Speaker Krishna.
The major beneficiary of the delimitation process has been the urban areas at the cost of rural areas. More particularly Bangalore Urban district, wherein the population has grown many fold since the last delimitation exercise came into effect in 1976, the benefit is maximum.
The total number of constituencies in Bangalore Urban district will increase from 16 to 28.
Who will benefit?
The Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes will be benefitted most by the delimitation process.
The number of Assembly seats reserved for SCs will go up from 33 to 36; for STs the number will go up from 2 to 15.
Similarly of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State, while SCs will get 5 seats (1seat more compared to the previous delimitation figure), the STs will get 2 seats against none previously.
The LS seats reserved for SCs are -Bijapur, Gulbarga, Chitradurga, Bangalore IV and Kolar and for the STs, the seats are-Raichur and Bellary.
Of the existing 35 assembly segments reserved for SC/STs, only 8 constituencies will remain as they are; the remaining 27 will undergo changes. Of the total 51 reserved constituencies that will emerge following the implementation of delimitation process, as many as 43 will be new ones.
It is in the north Karnataka region that a greater number of seats will be reserved for SC/STs. Two districts alone-Raichur (4) and Bellary (5)-will account for a lion’s share of ST seats.
Uttar Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu are the three districts where no seat will be reserved for either SCs or STs.
Facts for you
What is delimitation?
Delimitation is a process of fixing limits or boundaries of Lok Sabha/Assembly constituencies.
It is an exercise to ensure that there are as far as practicable, the same number of electors in each constituency. The basic concept of delimitation is, “one person, one vote and one value.”
Seat changes
Will the Assembly & Lok Sabha seats change?
No. The delimitation has been carried out based on the 2001 census without altering the total number of Lok Sabha -28 and Assembly constituencies-224.
Experts say that only 30 Assembly constituencies will remain unchanged in terms of population, geographic area and reservation-wise.
The remaining 195 will witness changes.
WHAT THEY SAY...
There is a motive behind the cabinet decision. It is one more experiment by the Congress. The Election Commission sho uld now come forward and announce when it would hold elections in Karnataka.
H D Deve Gowda
Former prime minister
The UPA government’s move is welcome especially because it takes care of social justice since delimitation will give more seats for weaker sections. The decision is timely, and pro-people. This will also pave way for new leadership to emerge which is healthy development in a democracy
H K Patil
Congress leader
It is a conspiracy by the Congress to postpone the elections in the State. Why was the Centre was sitting upon the delimitation report for the last six months and took the decision to implement it only now? Who has stopped the Centre from implementing delimitation six months’ ago?
H D Kumaraswamy
JD(S)
The decision shows that the Congress is committed for social justice as SC/STs will be benefitted in a big way by the report. Moreover it will also give an opportunity for new faces to get a chance to enter the assembly/Lok Sabha.
V S Ugrappa
KPCC General Secretary
Congress and JD(S) were wary of elections and could use the delimitation as an excuse to delay the polls. However, the Election Commission should ensure that the election process is completed by May 28.
B S Yeddyurappa
Former Chief Minister
The EC has sufficient time to prepare the electoral rolls as per the newly drawn assembly constituencies and conduct elections by May 28. He said the on-going process of revision of electoral rolls can be synchronised with the delimitation process and the new list prepared within 15 days.
D V Sadananda Gowda
BJP State President
