AAP demands re-carving of wards with uniform distribution of voters

The office of the delimitation committee had notified its draft order earlier this month, seeking feedback from political parties and the general public.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on September 29 objected to the delimitation commission's draft report flagging wide variations in the number of electorates in various municipal wards in Delhi and demanded equal distribution of voters across seats.

The AAP raised multiple objections to the recommendations made by the delimitation committee set up by the Centre to re-carve municipal wards in Delhi, and also demanded that the civic polls be held "at the earliest".

An AAP delegation comprising its MLAs Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Adil Khan visited the Delhi State Election Commission and submitted the party's objections to the draft order on delimitation of municipal wards. "Delimitation exercise seems politically motivated," Mr. Bharadwaj charged.

The office of the delimitation committee had notified its draft order earlier this month, seeking feedback from political parties and the general public.

"The AAP delegation raised the grievances of the people of Delhi with respect to the (delimitation committee) report which mainly revolved around altering of demographics due to disparity of population and the wards with large population, leaving them susceptible to misgovernance and poor development,” the AAP said in a statement.

In a memorandum submitted by the AAP delegation, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party noted the delimitation committee has "disturbed most of the wards" without changing the number of the wards in respective Assembly constituencies.

"Certain areas have been moved from one ward into another ward," it said, adding, "The delimitation committee has to tell the people of Delhi the rationale behind this move." Mr. Bharadwaj, the party's chief spokesperson and the MLA from the Greater Kailash Assembly constituency, said the AAP delegation raised the party's concerns before the authorities with regard to the “illogical” re-carving of the municipal wards by the delimitation commission.