Govt to hold talks with SEC on delimitation, says Bommai

BENGALURU: After MLAs from all parties raised concerns over the existing delimitation guidelines of the State Election Commission (SEC) that allegedly did not take into consideration population and geographical challenges, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said that possibilities of new guidelines will be discussed with the poll body.

“The delimitation process has already begun... But given the legitimate concerns of the members of the House, we will request the Commission to reconsider the guidelines. We cannot interfere in the election body’s decision, but can always have a dialogue,” Bommai told the House. He said that a meeting of all stakeholders, including Opposition parties, will be held on Thursday to prepare modified guidelines for delimitation.

“The elections will be held on time,” Bommai said after Congress’ HK Patil and Siddaramaiah said care should be taken so that elections -- likely to be held in May or June -- are not disrupted. “Issues have cropped up at districts during the delimitation process because of conditions like no division of gram and taluk panchayats and fixing of population limit,” Bommai said. BJP Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar raised the matter during zero hour and called the delimitation process unscientific.Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri asked the government to immediately talk to the SEC.