The Hindu : Leaders panic on delimitation issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 13, 2003

Other States

Other States - New Delhi

Leaders panic on delimitation issue

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI FEB. 12. What the Congress and the BJP leaders dreaded doing in Delhi is now likely to be done by the Delimitation Commission by default -- throwing up a new line of leadership in the Capital's polity. The old guards and their bastions face virtual demolition and many of them are already looking for cover to secure their future political careers.

There is panic in both camps as the Khuranas, Sajjans, Tytlers and Aggarwals who have ruthlessly ruled the city for the past two decades suddenly find themselves nowhere in the new scheme of things. The proposals of the Delimitation Commission for the realignment of all seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi and some Assembly seats are expected to be finalised shortly. The new shape of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies is likely to change the whole configuration and enable emergence of a young new leadership. The high commands of both the BJP and the Congress will find it extremely difficult to rehabilitate the old guard in view of the limitations and new profiles of the Lok Sabha seats.

The Jatland is clearly in despair as its two tall pillars -- Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma and Sajjan Kumar -- stand to lose their support base and dominance areas. Not only is their support base under threat but also the profile of their heavily populated and vast spread constituency is all set to change. In fact, the Outer Delhi constituency, which has seen many a tough battle, will be confined to the history books and emerge with a new name -- North-West Delhi (Reserved) Parliamentary constituency. The Karol Bagh (Reserved) Parliamentary seat is likely to be made a general seat and disintegrated to accommodate and merge it in other adjoining constituencies.

If it is Mr. Verma and Mr. Kumar who face the dilemma of finding a safe bet to carry on their "big brother'' politics, the scenario is more confused and rather drastic for Mr. Madan Lal Khurana and Mr. Jagdish Tytler who have always slugged out for the Sadar Parliamentary seat. According to the new proposals, Mr. Khurana and Mr. Tytler will have their constituency profile changed. Apart from re-naming it as West Delhi Parliamentary constituency, a number of new areas have been added or deleted which could well spell disaster.

While Mr. Khurana could well draw some solace from the fact that the new seat has a number of Punjabi speaking areas, Mr. Tytler could find the going tough. Not only would he have to deal with the new geographical profile of the new constituency but also he would be in direct confrontation with the former Chandni Chowk, MP. J.P. Aggarwal for the Central Delhi seat into which main of his areas have been merged.

Similarly, the East Delhi Parliamentary constituency has also been broken up to create a new North-East Delhi Parliamentary seat. The new re-christened East Delhi seat is also likely to change equations in trans-Yamuna politics in both the BJP and the Congress. The North-East Delhi seat has areas merged from the Sadar Parliamentary seat apart from a number of segments from the huge East Delhi seat. It is believed that new leadership is likely to emerge at least in the Congress in view of the proposed changes in the East Delhi seat. The delimitation exercise is being carried out on the 1991 census and all the seven Lok Sabha seats will be equally divided into 10 Assembly segments each. The Delimitation Commission has two sub-committees -- a four member Vidhan Sabha Committee and a seven member Lok Sabha Committee -- and will be sending its report on the various aspects of the reorganisation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

Stories in this Section

Sheila protests closure of pre-paid booths

Senior Congress leader passes away

Faulty work delays NDMC building

Leaders panic on delimitation issue

'Young brigade' disappoints in MCD session

Notices on unauthorised crematorium