Delimitation exercise to benefit Cong, claims AP BJP

Hyderabad, Feb 22 (UNI) The BJP today described as 'unconstitutional' and partisan to Congress, the proposed delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference here, State BJP President B Datattreya said it 'clearly discriminates between citizens on the basis of religion, social status and expressed voting preferences.' He wanted the Delimitation Commission to make available on internet the mapping of population in constituencies as per the 2001 census and population of indivisible units of mandals in rural areas and wards in urban areas.

Mr Datattreya wanted the Commission to extend the time limit by one month for filing objections after the information was provided on the internet.

The Commission's notification published on January 22 'violated the Constitution' and the exercise reduced to a ''systematic,partisan and factional' one to appease communal parties in the city, he contended.

It had excluded Dalits from the mainstream by confining them into ''electoral ghettos,'' destroyed constituencies that showed preference to candidates opposed to the Congress, reserving seats from where opposition leaders were getting elected and converting reserved seats into general ones to get rid of experienced leaders from the reserved categories, he charged.

An analysis of the proposed 15 Assembly seats in Hyderabad District and deviation from average number of voters as per the proposals notified by the Delimitation Commission clearly revealed that a distinction had been made between two sets of constituencies based on voters religion and their proportion in population in respect of two sets of constituencies, he claimed.

''Karwan in Hyderabad, Wardhannapet in Warangal, Kamalapur in Kadapa and Polavaram in West Godavari districts, are samples of the use of delimiting process to discriminate against voters who have either successfully opposed or are opposing the Congress and its ally the AIMIM,'' he alleged.

In the case of Mandals with high concentration of tribals, which earlier formed an Assembly constituency, they had been sought to be separated and attached to Assembly constituencies with low concentration of tribals because of strong opposition base among them, he claimed.

UNI