NEW DELHI, 2 March 2008 — Federal rule may continue in the southern state of Karnataka for at least six more months, as more time is needed to complete technicalities regarding redrawing of maps of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the state.
The Election Commission needs at least six months to complete the delimitation process in the state, which may delay assembly elections there, Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi said yesterday.
The commission clarified its stand following pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for holding of assembly elections in Karnataka as early as possible.
There is, however, still the possibility of Karnataka elections being held this summer. The commission is likely to decide on this after a visit by a team of officials to Karnataka on March 4. Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswamy, accompanied by Election Commissioners Qureshi and Navin Chawla will meet district administrators and politicians.
The Karnataka Assembly was dissolved Nov. 28. A new assembly is to be elected by May 28.
“Other than the six months to complete the delimitation exercise, we will need two months to complete the election process,” Qureshi said.
“We have set Aug. 31 as the deadline for completing the exercise all over the country. We have kept in mind the big states where we may need more time. There could be problems in some states. That is also being taken into consideration,” he said.
“Delimitation is a delicate exercise and is effective for 30 years. So we cannot take chances,” he said.
The Karnataka Assembly has 225 seats. After delimitation, the number of seats will remain the same but the number reserved for Scheduled Castes will increase from 33 to 36 and that of Scheduled Tribes go up from two to 15.
The addition of these 16 seats in these categories is likely to change the political dynamics to a great extent.
Karnataka was under federal rule for 34 days from Oct. 9 to Nov. 12 after the fall of Janata Dal-Secular-BJP government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy. The assembly was kept under suspended animation.
President’s rule was lifted after the two parties decided to come together again with the JD-S offering unconditional support to a BJP-led government. However, their reconciliation bid failed, leading again to president’s rule.
On Feb. 14, the federal Cabinet formally notified the delimitation of constituencies in all states barring Jharkhand, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
The Congress party is not in favor of early elections and would like more time to prepare for the poll. The BJP and Janata Dal-United have on their part already begun preparations for early elections. Recently in Delhi, the two parties reached a no-poaching deal. The JD-U was apparently upset with induction of Basavaraj Bommai in Karnataka and Gopal Pacherwal in Rajasthan. Angry at this, the JD-U said that the BJP should have at least informed them before inducting their members into the party. The JD-U even threatened not to be a part of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP in future.
The BJP assured the JD-U that there would no further poaching. The BJP has also offered to give JD-U 25 Karnataka Assembly seats, the final decision on which is likely to be taken this week.
