M A I N   N E W S

Delimitation process from April 9
LS, Assembly seats in Haryana
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 30
The process for delimitation of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies in Haryana, dreaded by almost all opposition leaders for obvious reasons, will formally start on April 9 when the first meeting of the Delimitation Commission for the state will be held in Delhi.

Besides the Delimitation Commissioner, Justice Kuldip Singh, a former Supreme Court Judge; Central Election Commissioner, B.B. Tandon and the Haryana State Election Commissioner, Mr T.D. Jogpal, are the permanent members of the Delimitation Commission for Haryana.

There are also 10 associate members — five MPs and five MLAs — of the commission. The MPs are Mr Ajay Singh Chautala and Mr Shushil Indora(both INLD), Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, Mr Kishan Singh Sangwan and Mrs Sudha Yadav(all BJP). The MLAs who are the associate members of the commission are Mr Dhir Pal, Mr Nafe Singh Jundla and Mr Nishan Singh(all INLD), Mrs Veena Chhibber(BJP) and Mr O.P. Jindal(Congress).

The delimitation process will have political ramifications in the state. The Opposition fears that it will be the endeavour of the ruling party that the constituencies represented at present by prominent opposition leaders be either reserved or merged with other constituencies.

Of the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, Ambala and Sirsa are reserved. Since the delimitation would be done on the basis of the Census figures of 1991, Ambala, represented by Mr Kataria, is unlikely to be dereserved. However, Sirsa, represented by Mr Indora, may be dereserved. In that case, Hisar is likely to be reserved. Incidentally, Sirsa is the native district of the ruling family.

Informed sources say, Bhiwani, which is generally considered to be the stronghold of former Chief Minister, Bansi Lal, is not in the danger of being reserved. However, Mr Bansi Lal’s Assembly constituency of Tosham comes in the danger zone. The sources say the number of Assembly constituencies in Bhiwani is to be reduced from six to five. The chances are that Tosham, Mundhal Khurd and Bawani Khera will be merged to carve out two Assembly constituencies. In that case Tosham may be reserved. Similarly, Palwan, represented by RPI MLA, Karan Singh Dalal, who is one of the most bitter critics of the INLD, also falls in the danger zone. Adampur, represented by the former Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal, and Kiloi, represented by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, are, however, said to be safe.

Since after the delimitation, an Assembly constituency will have on an average a population of 1.82 lakh, seven districts will see the reduction of the number of Assembly seats by one each. These districts are Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kaithal, Jind, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Narnaul. The number of reserved Assembly constituencies will go up from 17 to 18. Barring Panchkula district, which will now have two Assembly constituencies instead of the existing one, all districts will have one reserved constituency.

The political ramifications will be far serious in those districts, like Jind, where the number of constituencies will not only come down but at least one of the constituencies will be reserved. The sources say the possibility of reserving Barwala in Hisar district, represented by Mr Jai Prakash, another critic of the Chautala Government, and Narwana in Jind district, the traditional seat of the Surjewalas, cannot be ruled out.

In Kurukshetra district the number of seats will go up from three to four while one seat will be reserved. The same is the case in Panipat. Jind will be the worst hit. It will not only lose one seat, one of its assembly constituencies will also be reserved. Narnaul and Hisar also fall in the category of Jind. One of the two reserved constituencies in Sirsa, Ellenabad and Dabwali will be dereserved. The native village of the Chief Minister, Chautala, falls in the Dabwali constituency.

One reserved constituency each in Yamunanagar, Kaithal and Karnal will be dereserved. Jundla, the constituency represented by Mr Nafe Singh, an associate member of the commission, falls in Karnal district.

While the statewide average size of an Assembly constituency comes to 1.82 persons, it varies from district to district because the commission will try to make all the constituencies falling in a district equal(populationwise) with 10 per cent variation. While Panchkula will have the smallest constituencies with on an average 1.55 lakh population, Rewari district will have the biggest with an average of 2.03 lakh persons. Fardiabad will gain two Assembly constituencies after delimitation.

The sources say the commission will also try that those Assembly constituencies, which spill over to other revenue districts, are recarved in such a fashion as that these are limited to their parent revenue districts and tehsils.

The process for delimitation for Punjab will also start on April 9.

The commission has asked the associate members to submit their proposals at the meeting.