BJP supports delimitation of Assembly and LS constituencies

New Delhi, Oct 13 (UNI) The BJP today said it fully backed the 'delimitation' of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies as it was long overdue and claimed that majority of the political parties were in favour of this.

BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said his party wanted the 'delimitation' exercise to be carried out because it was a constitutional necessity to ensure parity of value for every vote cast in electing a Union Government from any part of the country.

He said since demographical changes were taking place in the country largely due to migration pattern, the Constitution had provided for 'delimitation' as the only way to ensure the balance.

This exercise does not, however, imply a growth in population because of the Government's decision to freeze the number of seats in each state as a recognition of good work done by some states in containing the population growth through family planning measures.

However, sources believe that there was an effort by the government to 'scuttle' the exercise through Justice Kuldip Singh Commission by seeking to grant higher value to the rural votes with a suggestion to treat district as a unit and not the State.

This would mean that the large scale urbanisation that has taken place during the last three decades would go unnoticed. However, this move, believed to be the handiwork of IAS officer turned Rajya Sabha member J D Seelam fell through as the parties did not favour the move.

''The Government too did not push through with the suggestion because it obviously had not done adequate home work,'' a top BJP leader said.

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