CHENNAI: : Saturday's meeting of the Delimitation Commission (DC) with the associate members from Tamil Nadu may determine whether the on-going exercise to redraw the boundaries of all constituencies in time for the 2006 Assembly elections, will succeed.

The progress, so far, has not given any hope for the Commission to complete the process well in time to go through the formalities connected to the notification of new boundaries for the constituencies.

While representatives of political parties, associate members of the Commission, have raised any number of objections to the procedure and the basis of the delimitation, those who are not there plan to launch agitations against the process.

The basic divide between the DC and its associate members relates to the question of choosing the basic administrative unit for the purpose of redrawing the boundaries of each constituency. While the Commission and the Registrar General of Census could only work on the basis of the revenue village as the lowest unit, going by the 2001 Census, the political representatives wanted the panchayat union to be the basic unit.

The State Election Commissioner, who is also a member of the DC, agreed to prepare a separate working paper based on the panchayat union as the unit.

Enquiries reveal that a change of direction at this stage may delay the entire process, making it almost impossible to give effect to it in the coming elections.

In addition to the procedure of draft notification, calling for objections, finalising the plan, then notifying it and finally setting the date of effect to be decided by the President of India under Articles 82 and 170 of the Constitution, fresh electoral rolls have to be prepared for each of the newly delineated constituencies. This alone takes at least three months.

It is against this background that the feasibility of completing the entire exercise ahead of the 2006 election arises.

According to some associate members — from among the MPs and MLAs from Tamil Nadu — they have "genuine, concrete reasons" for taking a serious view of the exercise. "These constituencies have existed for decades now. When we undertake such a serious exercise, everybody must be convinced we are doing it the right way. This involves time and consultation. We cannot rush into it with closed eyes. This may also mean de-reserving some constituencies and reserving some others for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. There is concentration of these communities in certain pockets of the State. While redrawing constituencies, we may end up splitting homogenous areas and denying them the right to elect their own representative," explains an associate member, a sitting legislator.

Aside from these official explanations, there appears to be real tension and fear among political parties and their aspiring candidates on how the delimitation may affect their chances. Willy nilly, the parties have tended to choose candidates on the basis of dominant castes or communities.When the demographic pattern changes and reserved constituencies become general seats or vice-versa, there may be major upheavals, political circles fear.

Considering the way the process has proceeded with, the boundaries of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies appear to have become as important as the country's boundaries with its neighbours.

But the question now arises as to whether the delimitation process will have any relevance to the State if it cannot be given effect to in the 2006 Assembly election.

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