Palacode Muslim Mehdaviya Jamath is protesting against the reorganisation of certain wards in Palacode town panchayat on the grounds that the process is bound to adversely affect the political representation of the Muslim voters at the local body.
The Palacode town panchayat has 18 wards, and of those, over 5 wards had a Muslim majority voting population, until the reorganisation.
According to the Mehdaviya Jamath, the wards were reorganised with Muslim voting population redistributed to other wards, while wards with less than 500 voters were left untouched.
It has been alleged that the registration of new voters from other wards went up to 1,300 in wards with a Muslim majority population, while there were wards left with 450 voters without any new inclusion.
D. Shabeer, president, Palaocde Muslim Mehdaviya Jamath told The Hindu that the way the reorganisation was carried out has sent out an impression that it has been done deliberately to dilute their political representation.
“There are wards with 450 and 500 voters, which were left untouched. But voters in Muslim majority wards were reallocated to other wards. The polling booth has also been reallocated to a distant area,” Mr. Shabeer said. According to him, this would impact the representation of the Muslims, who until now had a representational say in the board.
The Jamath has also alleged that the reorganisation of wards was not based on the population, or the streets, or on the proximity of the polling booths. Further, the old Ward 4, which is the new Ward 7, has been assigned a polling booth that was far off from the existing one.
This would cause immense hardship to women and the aged, the Jamath has stated in a petition.
Earlier, the members of the Jamath thronged the town panchayat office in Palacode, and handed over a petition to the official in charge, as the town panchayat official was not in town.
The Jamath called for review of the reorganisation of current wards and ensure that the exercise does not affect the representation capacity of the Muslim population.
The Jamath has also warned of poll boycott and return of family cards as a mark of protest if the voting population of the wards were reorganised to dilute the Muslim population.
