Delimitation may cost politicians' favourite hunting ground

NEW DELHI, Nov 25 (Agencies): After painstakingly nurturing their constituencies for several years, some of the political leaders may have a mammoth task on hand of starting from scratch when some new Parliamentary constituencies come into being following their delimitations.

A look at the delimitation work carried out in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the two big states sending 80 and 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha respectively, showed emergence of a number of new constituencies due to demographic changes.

Also several constituencies have undergone a change of character with some "general" seats becoming "reserved" and vice versa.

In UP, Akbarpur a reserved seat once represented by Chief Minister Mayawati has now become a general category seat.

Etawah, once held by former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, will now become a reserved seat for Scheduled Caste.

Similarly Bulandshahr, currently represented by former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Kalyan Singh, will undergo change as the seat has been reserved for SC.

Jan Morcha leader Raj Babbar who won the Agra seat as Samajwadi Party nominee, would not be able to contest from the same constituency as it has also become reserved.

Similar is the case with AICC Secretary Jitin Prasada, son of late Congress leader Jitendra Prasada, as his Shahjahanpur seat would now become reserved for SC.

Government has placed copies of notification before Parliament.

However, the implementation of the process would take effect from the date when the President notifies them.

Incidentally, UP has also the largest assembly with a strength of 403 members and there have also been changes in the assembly constituencies.

The new parliamentary constituencies that would come up in UP are Nagina (SC), Gautam Buddha Nagar, Fatehpur Sikri, Dhaurahra, Kaushambi (SC), Ambedkar Nagar, Kushi Nagar, Shrawasti, Sant Kabir Nagar and Bhadohi.

In Maharashtra, Latur constituency represented earlier for over half-a-dozen times by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will become a seat reserved for the Scheduled Caste so also Solapur, once represented by Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Incidentally, the Pandharpur seat which is a reserved one has now become part of the Solapur seat while a new constituency of Madha, that includes parts of Solapur, Satara and Sangli districts, will come into existence.

Kopargaon constituency, currently represented by former Union Minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil will disappear and a new constituency Shirdi (SC) will emerge.

In Konkan region, Ratnagiri and Rajapur seats, currently represented by former Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena would become a single "Ratnagiri- Sindhudurg" constituency.

Among the new constituencies are Dindori (ST), Palghar (ST), Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Maval, Raver, Shirur and Hathkanangle.

With the delimitation, there would be four constituencies in Thane, adjoining Mumbai, and in Pune where the demographic picture has changed drastically due to industrialisation.

Yavatmal-Washim which are currently two separate constituencies in the Vidarbha region would become one while Ramtek, once held by former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, would become a reserved seat for SC.

Political parties like RJD and JMM have publicly came out against the delimitation process finding fault with the way it has been carried out.

Government has already placed copies of the notifications in Parliament with respect to 25 states and union territories where the delimitation process of Parliamentary and assembly constituencies has been completed.

However, the implementation of the process would take effect only when the President notifies them.

Government has already made it known that the next general elections might be held on the basis of the newly carved out constituencies only if these delimitation orders are notified by the President.