Delimitation of Constituencies: The Purpose Lalit K Kaul

                                    Delimitation of Constituencies: The Purpose                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                      Lalit K Kaul

The exercise of delimitation should not be motivated by partisan party interests to enhance the possibility of capturing political power in a State under consideration. The primary concern should be to devise a mechanism for delimitation that would ensure that the interests of the people are served in a best possible way.

If serving the people is the motivating force then the bottom line for marking the boundaries of a proposed constituency is to determine the optimum size of a population that its representative can effectively serve. Therefore the population density in a constituency cannot be chosen arbitrarily to serve certain vested interests.

Basic Issue concerning Delimitation:

The Representation of People’s Act enables Indian citizens to elect their representatives for Parliamentary and Assembly elections. One would expect delineating of constituencies on some rational basis and that would define the minimum and maximum size of the population in a proposed constituency. The lower and upper limits are to provide for some maneuverability in the exercise of defining the boundaries of a constituency. Between the constituencies there cannot be a huge difference insofar as population density and number of electorates is concerned. It cannot be acceptable that in one constituency there are, say, 10,000 electorates and in the another, say, 50,000 because this kind of a situation ridicules the whole concept of people’s representation. It also implies that one can represent any size of population and if that be so then there can be only one representative for the entire State/UT and Indian Union.

The basic issue to be addressed is: how to choose a criterion that shall decide the size of population to be represented by one MLA or MP. Can it be in lacs or in thousands? The only answer, perhaps, is that smaller the population size better connect of their representative with them. It may be a mathematical problem of social dynamics, the solution of which may yield optimum size of a population for a constituency, yet the electorates cannot swing from few thousands to more than a lac in the constituencies of a given State/UT. Such a large swing ridicules the Representation of People’s Act and shows how callously the constituencies have been delineated else, it may be so to communicate the message that the elected representatives anyway do not matter in the governance of a State/UT and that the elections are just an exercise in a democratic set up and democracy is limited to only casting of votes in elections.

Before taking up the process of delimitation in the UT of J&K, the Commission may prefer to have a look at the distribution of population in different existing Assembly constituencies and base the delimitation process on re demarcating the existing constituencies in order to have near equal population/electorates in them.

The table (next page) depicts the swing from 14,109 (Nubra) electorates to 1,69,672 (Gandhi Nagar) electorates. The Nubra representative has much better chances of interacting with his population as compared to the Gandhi Nagar one. So either Gandhi Nagar be broken in to as many constituencies (each sizing up tp Nubra) else, Nubra may be re demarcated to a size that may be optimal in some sense.

Those who talk about “scientific” way of delimitation need to put their heads together to remove the arbitrariness employed in demarcating constituencies. So must the Delimitation Commission and the political leadership do the needful to make the implementation of the Representation of People’s Act meaningful and relevant to the people for whom the Act was incorporated in the Indian Constitution.

District wise AC Electorates (2014)

 District                                Assembly Constituency Electorates:

Jammu                          : J(West) :1,53,794; J(East): 53,346; Gandhi Nagar: 1,69,672; Nagrota: 72907

 Samba                          : Samba: 84,916 ; Vijaypur: 1,13,082

 Kathua                          : Hira Nagar: 110753; Billawar: 96,599; Kathua: 1,10,3075; Basholi: 76209;

                                         Bani: 41533;

Udhampur                    : Ramnagar : 1,09,209; Chenani: 87,627; Udhampur: 1,07,118

Reasi                              : Gool Arnas: 61,476; Reasi: 1,08,535; Gulabgarh: 68,379

Ramban                         : Banihal: 78,588; Ramban: 86,604

Doda                              : Bhaderwah: 1,06,302; Doda: 84,548

Kishtwar                        : Inderwal: 83,813; Kishtwar: 79,174

Kargil                             : Zanskar: 21,143; Kargil: 60094

Leh                                 : Leh: 70,840; Nubra: 14,109;

Anantnag                       : Pahalgam: 80,985; Bijbehara: 86,929; Shangus: 82689; Kokernag: 86825;

                                         Dooru:74,321; Anantnag: 83,607

Kulgam                            : Devsar: 88,991; Hom Shali Bugh: 75,936; Kulgam: 94,326; Noorabad: 73,355

Shopian                         : Shopian: 82,348; Wachi: 79,257

Pulwama                       : Rajpora: 90,581; Pulwama: 79,175; Pampore: 78,176; Tral: 84,231

Budgam                         : Charari Sharief: 78,359; Khan Sahib: 86,041; Beerwah: 93,046; 

                                         Budgam: 1,03,683   Chadoora: 84,218

Srinagar                        :Batmaloo:1,20,344; Sonawar:77,512; Amira Kadal:86520; Habba Kadal:54,858;

                                         Khanyar: 51,011; Eidgah: 58,822; Zadibal: 76,915; Hazratbal: 99,857

Ganderbal                     :  Ganderbal: 90,582; Kangan: 69,590

Baramulla                     : Pattan: 89,416; Gulmarg: 94,700; Baramulla: 82937; Sangrama: 66,159;

Baramulla                    : Sopore: 1,03,782; Rafiabad: 80,165; Uri: 74,909

Bandipora                    : Sonawari: 99,490; Bandipora: 98,701; Gurez: 17,624

Kupwara                      : Langate: 70,608; Handwara: 89,983; Lolab: 1,00,045; Kupwara: 1,07,033;

                                       Karnah:33,132

Primary Task for the Delimitation Commission:

Looking at the distribution of population in the existing Assembly constituencies of the UT of J&K it seems to have been done with total disregard to the people’s interests and that’s why the number of electorates in the given constituencies has a incongruously wide range extending from 14,000 to 1,69,000. Therefore, if people’s interests are to be served then the first exercise that the Delimitation Commission needs to do is to minimize the disparity between the constituencies insofar as population density is concerned. This basic exercise may either lead to increase or decrease in the existing number of constituencies depending upon whether smaller density ones are merged in to a bigger one or the bigger ones are broken in to smaller ones and in doing so the optimum size of population in a constituency should be borne in mind.

Once the population density is normalized within a +/- 10% range, the Delimitation Commission may start working on the proposal of increasing the number of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, if required.