Andhra BJP seeks time for filing delimitation objections

New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) The BJP Andhra Pradesh unit today requested the Delimitation Commission to reconsider proposed changes in the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies of the state and extend time for receiving objections by one more month till such time the Commission provided a map of the constituencies on the website.

State BJP President Bandaru Dattatreya told newspersons that some of the proposed changes were against the fundamental principle of 'equity in franchise' and the Constitution did not allow discrimination between citizens on the basis of religion or social status and expressed voting preferences.

He said the Constitution provided treating every assembly constituency to be wholly within a Parliamentary constituency and as far as practicable to be geographically compact. ''There was an attempt to appease communal parties like the MIM in Hyderabad and to exclud Dalits from the mainstream by packing them into 'electoral ghettos' by 'gerrymandering' the constituencies,'' he said.

Citing an example, he said the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency, won by TRS Chief K Chandrashekhara Rao, was brought under reservation status but segments with low percentage of Scheduled Castes, deleted.

Similarly in Nellore, a district with highest percentage of SC population, was converted to general, creating a problem for sitting MP and Union Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi.

Mr Dattatreya took exception to the statement by the Andhra Pradesh Government that they would bring an ordinance providing four per cent reservation to Muslims violating the Constitution and the Supreme Court verdict. "We will fight politically and legally against it", he remarked.

UNI