Shimla, December 2
The ongoing process of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies, which caused much turmoil in the state on the eve of election, has been finally deferred.
The decision came after a series of high-level meetings involving the Central Election Commission and the Delimitation Commission in New Delhi today. As a consequence the public hearing on the draft delimitation proposals scheduled for December 5, 7 and 9 has been deferred indefinitely.
The Central Election Commission had written to the Delimitation Commission that the process should be completed within the next few days in the states which were due for election in February. However, if this was not possible the exercise should be deferred as the electoral rolls would have to be changed for the ensuing polls.
The Delimitation Commission discussed the issue at the meeting held under the chairmanship of Mr Justice Kuldeep Singh in the morning. It was followed by a meeting between members of the Delimitation Commission and the Election Commission at which it was concluded that it would not be possible to complete the exercise by the deadline.
Thereafter the Delimitation Commission again held a meeting in the afternoon at which it took a formal decision to defer the process.
The Commission had come under attack from senior leaders of the Congress and the BJP and they had been alleging that the entire exercise was being manipulated to suit the political convenience of the Chief Minister. Besides some grave discrepancies had come to light in the draft proposals, which put a question mark on the credibility of the Commission.
