The Hindu : Kerala News : Delimitation panel refuses to accept Chandy's proposals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 29, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Delimitation panel refuses to accept Chandy's proposals

N.J. Nair

`Congress failed to present its views effectively before panel'

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Delimitation Commission, which concluded its sitting here on Tuesday last, is learnt to have refused to accept a request furnished subsequently by the Chief Minister's office listing certain proposals for its consideration.

According to sources, the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy's political secretary, Vasudeva Sharma, met the commission chairman, Kuldip Singh, at the Raj Bhavan to submit the proposals. Mr. Singh turned down the request saying such requests could not be entertained, as it would go against established convention.

Mr. Sharma is learnt to have met Mr. Singh after Congress legislators complained that the party machinery had failed to present its views effectively before the commission, at its sittings in Kozhikode, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

Earlier, the commission had turned down the Chief Minister's request to postpone the sittings in the State on grounds that MLAs would not be able to attend as they would be busy with a training camp and members of local bodies institutions would be engaged in drought-relief activities on those days.

However, following Mr. Chandy's request, the commission decided to change its schedule in the State. It had originally planned to seek the views of leaders of political parties and people's representatives to prepare the final list after the three sittings were over. Later, it decided to hold a meeting of the associate members on the evening of April 26 and publish the final list without giving scope for much discussion.

While the CPI, the CPI(M) and the IUML had succeeded in presenting their case before the commission, the Congress leaders were embroiled in factional squabbles and failed to put across their viewpoint before the commission. There were instances where certain MLAs and the District Congress Committees adopted mutually contradicting stands on the issue of delimitation of constituencies. In once such case, proposals submitted by the Kannur district committee were contrary to those submitted by the Irikkur MLA, K.C. Joseph. So too, the respective views aired by the Kottayam district committee and Mercy Ravi, MLA, sources said.

This was mainly due to lack of coordination. While the commission was preparing the draft proposals, the Congress was represented by Aryadan Mohammed and Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan. Later, when they became Ministers, M.P. Gangadharan and P.P. George were entrusted with the task. However, this was done without any detailed discussions between the parties concerned. Even the MLAs could not reach a consensus on delimitation, sources said.

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