KATHMANDU, Sept 1: Expressing serious dissatisfaction over the number of constituencies allocated in the tarai districts, the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN) on Friday submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
RJPN has said that 22 districts in the tarai were allocated only 47.27 percent of the total constituencies for the federal parliament even as the region constitutes about 51 percent of the national population as per the national census conducted in 2011. The Election Constituency Delineation Commission that submitted its report to Prime Minister Deuba on Wednesday has demarcated 78 of the total 165 electoral constituencies for the federal parliament in tarai districts.
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Prior to this, altogether 116 of the total 240 election constituencies were allocated to 22 tarai districts. This was 48.33 percent the total electoral constituencies. These districts constituted 48.4 percent of the total population as per the 2001 national census.
“The electoral constituency delineation now has reduced five electoral constituencies in the tarai. This has not only curtailed our rights but also perpetuated the discrimination,” said the RJPN statement.
According to RJPN spokesmann Keshab Jha, the RJPN delegation complained with Prime Minister Deuba that the new demarcations have broken up the ethnic cluster and resorted to gerrymandering in the interests of certain leaders of the ruling parties. “RJPN protests against the conspiracy to reduce the representation from Tarai-Madhes in the recent constituency delineations,” said Jha.
