EC's reservation order will increase number of reserved seats

The Delhi Election Commission's 'reservation order' has clubbed reserved seats for women, SC and SC(W) categories in some constituencies after delimitation of wards.
The move is likely to limit the chances of general category candidates vying to contest from these wards in upcoming municipal polls.
As per the delimitation order, there are a total of 272 Wards - 104 each in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and 64 in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).
Now, the number of seats reserved for women will be 42 in NDMC, 45 in SDMC and 27 in EDMC out of 84, 89 and 53 seats after deduction of seats reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes in the respective Corporations.

In some Assembly segments, all the wards while in others, more than half the number of wards have been reserved for SC, Women and SC(W). Also, the number of reserved seats have also been increased.
"In Sultanpuri and Gokulpuri constituencies having four wards each, all four have been reserved. In Mangolpuri, Madipur and Trilokpuri Assembly constituencies, having three wards each, two have been reserved while in Ambedkar Nagar, Tughlaqabad and Karolbagh, having three wards, two have been reserved," said Chatar Singh, chairman of delimitation committee of Delhi Congress.

Not only this, the number of reserved seats have also increased, he said.

"As per the rules, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has to have 52 reserved seats but the number of such seats is 53. In EDMC, the reserved seats are 33 while prescribed number is 32," Singh said.
However, Delhi BJP said that the reservation of seats was according to the suggestion made by the party to the Election Commission.
"In past two elections, the reserved seats for SC were scattered across Assembly constituencies. We had suggested for reserving seats for SC candidates as per population which will benefit the community," said former South Delhi mayor and Delhi BJP leader Subhash Arya.

As per the delimitation order, which is based on Census 2011, the number of wards in each Assembly Constituency have changed and the Election Commission has decided to adopt the seat reservation for SCs on the basis of highest percentage of Scheduled Castes population in a ward within the corporation in a descending order.