Differences within the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP) have come to the fore over the issue of delimitation.
A few days ago, party MP and working president Supriya Sule said the NCP (SP) could consider supporting the proposed delimitation exercise if the number of Lok Sabha seats was increased by 50 per cent across all states. However, on Monday, her nephew and party MLA Rohit Pawar took a contrasting stand, urging all MPs to oppose the bill in a detailed post on X written in Marathi.
Pawar wrote that the ruling party's primary objective during the monsoon session was to secure the passage of the delimitation bill, and that it could offer a 50 per cent increase in the number of seats as part of its strategy to achieve that goal.
"But if we fall into this trap of numbers and support the bill, the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies will be manipulated just like municipal wards in municipal elections," said Pawar.
Rohit further claimed that the proposed restructuring would then be solely aimed at retaining political power, with little regard for factors such as geographical boundaries or the constitutional framework.
The delimitation in Assam was a perfect example of this, he alleged.
"Since 2016, the BJP has devised a strategy with the help of experienced former officials on how to manipulate constituencies to remain
in power. They are now merely waiting for this bill to be passed," he wrote.
He further alleged that the BJP would project an image of consensus, make a series of promises, and appear to take the Opposition into confidence to secure support for the bill. However, he claimed that once the legislation is passed, the Opposition's concerns would be ignored.
"They are making aggressive preparations to attack the Constitution with delimitation on one side and SIR (Special Intensive Revision) on the other. One has to think carefully about whether to foil this attempt or let it succeed by directly or indirectly supporting the bill," said Rohit.
