LUCKNOW: The Delimitation Commission's proposal to obliterate the Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh generated heat on Saturday, the opening day of a two-day hearing here on public objections and suggestions, with the Bahujan Samaj Party MP from the constituency, Mohammed Tahir Khan, suggesting that the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, not Sultanpur, should cease to exist.

The Amethi parliamentary constituency is in Sultanpur district and is represented by the Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi.

Mr. Khan's suggestion sparked an angry reaction from the strong contingent of Congressmen present at the proceedings with some Congress members moving menacingly towards the MP. They returned to their seats following the intervention of the Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalaswami, who conducted the hearing. Later Mr. Khan retracted his statement.

Barring the reaction from Congressmen, the demand for saving Sultanpur as a Lok Sabha constituency cut across party lines.

According to the Commission's second draft proposal on the delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, the five Asembly segments of the Sultanpur parliamentary constituency have been attached to three Lok Sabha constituencies. While the Jaisinghpur Assembly constituency has been included in the Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat, Kadipur and Chanda have gone over to the Pratapgarh parliamentary constituency, and Isauli and Sultanpur incorporated in the Amethi constituency.

Mr. Khan assailed the process adopted to delimit the constituencies, which had resulted in Sultanpur losing its existence. Making a strong plea for retaining the constituency, the BSP MP expressed his disgust that the Assembly segments of Sultanpur had been attached to other parliamentary constituencies.

Senior Congress leader Sanjay Singh suggested that Sultanpur can be saved if a more judicious assessment was made of the Scheduled Caste population in the State for naming the reserved Lok Sabha seats. Supporting the Commission's proposal to reserve one Lok Sabha seat for the SCs in each 17 divisional commissionaries, Dr. Singh said that Sultanpur should be retained. The Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from the Sultanpur city Assembly constituency, Om Prakash Pandey, supported the save Sultanpur demand and alleged that the move smacked of politics.

Mr Pandey alleged that there was a proposal to create Amethi as a new district and hence the move to drop Sultanpur as an Lok Sabha seat. He feared the move would result in Sultanpur losing its district status. In the morning session, strong objections were raised against the Commission's proposal to declare the Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha constituency as a reserved seat. Shahjahanpur is represented by the Congress MP, Jitin Prasad. In this context too, the demand to restore Shahjahnpur 's status as a general seat cut across party lines.

In his presentation, Mr. Prasad said he was not happy with the process for reserving his seat. He said the SC population in the neighbouring Aonla Lok Sabha was 17.65 per cent of the total population as compared to 17.49 per cent in Shahjahanpur, yet Shahjahanpur was reserved.

Mr. Prasad said four assembly segments each of Aonla and Budaun Lok Sabha seats were interchanged which resulted in the SC population in Aonla coming down to around 15.45 per cent of the total population.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail