Date:14/03/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/14/stories/2003031406221100.htm

National

Parties divided over base year

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 13. The work being done by the Delimitation Commission has received a setback with political parties divided over the question of a base year for the work. It seems that MPs of most parties fear that large-scale changes in their constituencies — when a general election is due in 18 months — may create political uncertainties for them, if not work to their disadvantage.

At an all-party meeting here today, there were differences of opinion among parties on whether 1991 or the 2001 census should form the basis of the delimitation exercise although 1991 had been agreed upon when the Commission was constituted in July last year after Parliament adopted the Delimitation Act.

The Government has now given parties 15 days to convey their views in writing, after which it would consider an amendment to the Constitution to change the base year to 2001 census figures, the Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, said after the 90-minute meeting.

The Government also pointed out that if parties decided that delimitation should be done on the basis of 2001 figures, it would mean that the 2004 Lok Sabha elections would be fought on the basis of the earlier delimitation exercise carried out 32 years ago on the basis of the 1971 census. In short, the present contours of constituencies would remain unchanged for the 2004 elections. Between now and the Lok Sabha elections the Commission would not have enough time to complete the massive exercise.

Party leaders were unanimous in conveying to the Government their sense of disappointment that associate members of the Commission (five MPs and five MLAs from each State) were not being fully consulted. ``These associate members drawn from different political parties must be fully consulted by the Commission at every stage of the work,'' Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, Lok Janshakti leader, said. The complaint was that by and large they were being ignored. The Government agreed to convey this view to the Commission.

Apparently, some Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe MPs pointed out that if the delimitation exercise was not completed soon, the increased percentage of the Scheduled Caste population would not be reflected. Some rough calculations indicate that the number of SC reserved seats could go up by about four seats in the Lok Sabha if 1991 was taken as the base year and by as many as 15 if 2001 was the base year.

Only after the views of all parties were obtained would the Government be able to assess whether there was enough support to change the base year to 2001 through a Constitutional amendment. Even if this is done as early as possible, the entire exercise could be delayed and derailed for several months.