Ajmer: The District Rural Congress Monday filed a petition at the district election office, demanding re-delimitation of panchayat samitis in Ajmer district. The petition, presented by district rural President and Congress MLA Vikas Choudhary, also demanded cancellation of the current delimitation, alleging that the new delimitation was under pressure from the BJP govt.With the local bodies elections going to be held in the next few months, the Congress party alleged that the current exercise was done under political pressure so that BJP would get an edge in the upcoming Panchayat Samiti elections. The petition stated, “The present delimitation done by the district administration did not follow the rules and directions of the Election Commission, as in some wards the number of voters is more than 20,000, while in some the number of voters is much less than 20,000.” As per the rules, for a population of 4,00,000 there should be 17 wards, but here the number of wards is less. The petition stated that at present there are 11 such wards which were made with a lower population than prescribed and directed in the rules while there are 10 wards where the population is more than that prescribed. Congress alleged in the petition that the district administration did this on the directions of BJP local leaders and did not follow the Election Commission’s rules. The party, in the petition, gave 27 legal points that were violated by the district administration while drawing the new boundaries for local bodies, and provided examples of new wards where the rules and laws of the Panchayat Raj Act were violated. It demanded that the district election official should give a chance to the Congress to put their point across for free and fair elections.
