Patna, Aug. 12: India’s delimitation commission has reserved Gopalganj and Samastipur Lok Sabha seats for Scheduled Castes driving a major blow to RJD MPs Sadhu Yadav and Alok Mehta.

Sadhu Yadav alias Anirudh Prasad, who also happens to be Lalu Prasad’s brother-in-law, and Mehta represent Gopalganj and Samastipur in the Lok Sabha. They would have to find out new seats to contest in the 2009 polls.

The commission has also executed a major change in the profile of Chhapra seat, which the railway minister, Lalu Prasad, represents. It has taken out Taraiya Assembly segment from Chhapra and has added Jalalpur to it.

The Rajput dominated Taraiya becomes part of Maharajganj, which the JD(U) parliamentary board chairman, Prabhunath Singh represents.

The commission has ended the existence Barh Lok Sabha seat and has created two seats out of Patna — Patna Saheb and Pataliputra. The Patna Saheb comprises Bakhtiarpur (earlier a part of Barh seat), Fatuha, Bankipur, Pataliputra and Kumharar while Pataliputra consists of Masaurhi, Vikram, Paliganj, Danapur, Maner and Paliganj. The large-scale change in Bihar’s Lok Sabha constituencies’ profile was executed at a meeting headed by the chairman of the commission Kuldip Singh at New Delhi last night.

The chief election commissioner, N. Gopalaswami and Bihar’s chief electoral officer J.K. Dutta also attended the meeting.

A gazette notification to this effect is likely to be issued in a day or two, sources said. The new list of the Lok Sabha seats, reserved for the SCs, include Gopalganj, Jamaui, Samastipur, Gaya, Hajipur and Sasasaram.

On the other hand the seats, which have lost their SC status turning into general ones, include Nawada, Rosera, Araria and Balmiki Nagar (new name of Bagaha seat).

The Union minister Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav (RJD) too suffers a blow for his Haveli Khadagpur Lok Sabha seats becomes a part of the Jamui Lok Sabha seat which the commission has reserved for SC. Now he has no option other than contesting from Munger, which has got Mokamah and Barh in it.

Similarly, Ramchandra Paswan, brother of another union minister and dalit leader, Ram Vilas Paswan suffers a damage for his Rosera seat goes unreserved. He will have to find out a constituency to contest next time.

For the first time the commission has reserved two assembly seats for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Bihar: they are Manihari and Katoria, which have sizeable population of tribals.

The commission has, however, retained the total number of 40 Lok Sabha seats and 243 assembly seats in Bihar. The assembly constituencies in the commission's new list of 'reserved for SCs' include Mohania, Chenari, Rajpur, Agiaon, Deo, Imamganj, Phulwari Sharief, Bodh Gaya, Rajauli, Barbigha, Sikandara, Raja Pakar, Patepur, Bochaha, Bathnaha, Ram Nagar and Pipra.