No fresh govt proposal on delimitation: Supriya Sule

Mumbai, No fresh proposal has been shared by the government regarding delimitation, NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule said on Saturday, while recalling an earlier informal discussion in which a uniform 50 per cent increase in seats across all states was mooted.

Speaking to reporters here, Sule said that around six months ago, the government had called a meeting involving her, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant, and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, where a proposal for a flat 50 per cent seat hike across every state from Kashmir to Kanyakumari was discussed.

According to Sule, the opposition leaders present had felt the suggestion was reasonable given the sharp rise in electorate sizes over the years.

"When I contested for the first time, a constituency had 12 to 13 lakh voters. Today, in the region I come from, the electorate has grown to 25 to 30 lakh, and in several parts of Maharashtra it has reached up to 40 lakh," Sule said.

Questioning how a single representative could effectively serve such a massive population, she remarked that unless a person is "Superman or Batman," managing 40 lakh people with an MPLADS fund of Rs 5 crore is practically unsustainable.

She said that a uniform, flat-rate increase across the country would address this demographic strain, adding that her party had already expressed readiness to consider such an approach positively.

Responding to a query regarding the related legislation, Sule said let the Bill be introduced, but in principle "the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party had indicated during earlier discussions that it would support measures taken in the larger interest of the country."

"We were ready to think positively about this 50 per cent flat proposal earlier, and we have said this earlier as well," the Baramati MP said.

Sule further clarified that the Centre's proposal back then had envisaged a uniform increase across states, and was not based on population.

"Our stand...was that if the proposal was for a uniform 50 per cent increase, we would consider it positively. Our stand remains the same even today," she said.

However, Sule added that her party had not received any fresh proposal or Bill.

"We have not received any proposal or Bill so far. If you ask me whether there is a Bill, I have no idea. But when the 50 per cent proposal was presented to us, we had said that we would consider it positively," she said.

She said that her party had also made it clear that it would consult its alliance partners first.

"We had said that we would discuss it with all our alliance partners. If the proposal is good and in the interest of the country, we could consider it," she said.

Stressing the need to prioritise women's reservation, Sule said, "Our biggest demand is that women's reservation should be given priority while undertaking delimitation. We have already passed the women's reservation bill unanimously. The issue of women's reservation and the delimitation formula should be considered together."

Recalling the previous delimitation exercise, Sule said it had been undertaken in 2007, when the undivided NCP was in power as part of a Congress-led coalition in Maharashtra and at the Centre.