Delimitation: Karnataka BJP wants Assembly seat-wise boundaries

The BJP and the JD(S) have asked the Delimitation Commission to redraw panchayat boundaries on the basis of Assembly constituencies, a move loaded with political implications.

At present, Zilla and taluk panchayat boundaries are drawn in such a way that some of them come under multiple Assembly constituencies.

The Panchayat Raj Delimitation Commission has been tasked with redrawing Zilla and taluk panchayat boundaries and fixing the number of elected representatives they should have, following which elections will be held for these rural local bodies. Elections were due in May-June this year and the ruling BJP has been accused of delaying them using delimitation as an excuse.

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Congress, the principal opposition, has not attended any of the five meetings held by the Commission so far. The party says it had no invitation, a claim denied by the Commission.

Karnataka has 31 Zilla panchayats under which there are 232 taluk panchayats, covering 30,000 villages. There are 224 Assembly constituencies.

“Right now, a district and a taluk are considered as a unit in themselves. We want the Assembly constituency to be considered as one unit,” BJP general secretary Ashwathnarayan, a former MLC, said.

He cited a specific example: The Kanakapura and Ramanagara Assembly segments are neighbours. The hoblis of Harohalli and Maralavadi vote in the Ramanagara segment, but they are under Kanakapura in terms of administration.

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“If I am a Zilla panchayat member and I come under two Assembly constituencies - each held by a different party - it’ll be difficult to get works done. If it’s inevitable for a Zilla panchayat to be divided, we asked the Commission to make sure every gram panchayat comes under a single Zilla panchayat,” he said.

The JD(S) has made a similar argument, according to proceedings of its meetings the Commission has made public.

The BJP has also asked the Commission to ensure Scheduled Caste votes do not get split up while the boundaries are redone.

Congress working president Saleem Ahmed accused the BJP of being partisan. “It’s unfortunate that a national party had no invitation to attend the meetings,” he said.

Commission chairperson M Lakshminarayana contested this. “I have an acknowledgement to show that meeting notices were delivered to the Congress office,” he said, adding that even the BSP attended one of the meetings.

On the BJP’s argument, Lakshminarayana said: “Assembly constituencies aren’t geographically divided. To the extent possible, we will eliminate discrepancies.”

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