Shah says south states will not lose seats in delimitation

COIMBATORE: The southern states will get a fair share of seats in the delimitation exercise and no province will suffer a reduction in their parliamentary representation, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday, attempting to nip in the bud a looming controversy over the impending exercise and pushback from opposition parties.

- Neeraj Chauhan

Shah's comments came a day after Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin called the impending delimitation of Lok Sabha seats "a sword hanging over the southern states" and announced an all-party meeting in Chennai on March 5 to discuss the politically contentious issue.

"CM (Stalin) and his son (Udhyanidhi Stalin) are trying to mislead the people of Tamil Nadu by raking up some issues. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has made it clear in the Parliament that on a pro rata basis, redrawing of parliamentary constituencies based on population levels will not alter the proportion of Lok Sabha members of parliament from the southern states," Shah said.

He assured that if there was any increase in seats during delimitation, the southern states would get an equal share.

Shah also targeted the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Tamil Nadu government for allowing a free run to "anti-national elements, drug smugglers and illegal mining mafia" in the state. He was addressing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Coimbatore, where he inaugurated a party office. He attended the Mahashivratri celebrations on Wednesday evening at the Isha Foundation Yoga Centre.

To be sure, calculations show that if the number of Lok Sabha seats are increased proportional to the population of states, the more populous but poorer northern states will see their relative representation in Parliament expand at the expense of the prosperous but less populous southern states that have done far better in population control over the last few decades.

The delimitation exercise originally scheduled for 2026 redefines the number of representatives a state sends to the Lok Sabha on the basis of population, and given the relative failure of states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in controlling their population, it will mean that they end up with more seats in Parliament.