States that have stabilised their populations will not lose their Lok Sabha seats during delimitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at an election rally in Kerala on Saturday.
All states will benefit from a proposed increase in the size of the Lower House of Parliament, he said in Thiruvalla, in what are being viewed as the prime minister’s first comments about the proposed delimitation exercise.
Delimitation is the process of fixing the boundaries of electoral constituencies. Article 82 of the Constitution states that after every census is completed, the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to each state must be adjusted based on changes in its population.
The composition of the current Lok Sabha is based on the 1971 census. According to the 84th Amendment Act of 2001, the constituency boundaries were frozen until the first census after 2026.
The population census, which began on Wednesday, is expected to conclude in 2027.
Southern states, which have a slower population growth rate, have repeatedly expressed concern that population-based delimitation could give an undue advantage to northern and central states in the Lok Sabha.
On Saturday, Modi said that Kerala and Tamil Nadu, among other states, had done good work to control their population. “Some people are spreading lies, claiming that their parliamentary seat allocation will be reduced, because their population growth has reduced,” he said.
Modi said that the Union government wants to “formally seal a guarantee through a legislation that in no state — be it Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa or Telangana — will the number of Lok Sabha seats be reduced”.
The Budget Session of Parliament, which was to end on Thursday, will reconvene on April 16 for three days to amend the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act.
Modi said on Saturday that the first objective of extending the session was to provide a guarantee that states will not lose Lok Sabha seats.
“The second is to ensure that the seats reserved for women are created as additional seats, thereby increasing the total number of seats,” The Hindu quoted him as saying at the rally. “This would confer a tremendous benefit upon our states in southern India.”
The 2023 Act reserves 33% of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women. However, the reservations will be effective only after a population census is conducted, followed by a delimitation exercise.
During the reconvened Parliament session, the Union government is planning to introduce bills to amend the 2023 Act, delinking the 33% women’s quota from the 2027 census and opting instead to conduct the delimitation exercise, according to reports.
The decision has been criticised by Opposition parties, who claim that the intention of the Union government to introduce the amendments during the Assembly elections was to gain electoral benefits.
While the polling in Kerala, Assam and Puducherry will conclude on April 9, the election campaign in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal would be underway on April 16.
Tamil Nadu will hold the polls in a single phase on April 23. The voting in West Bengal will take place in two phases on April 23 and April 29. The counting of votes in all states will take place on May 4.
Reacting to Modi’s statement, the Congress said that it was “nothing but a weapon of mass distraction” at a time when the country was facing a “serious economic and foreign policy crisis”.
Party leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that the prime minister was making misleading claims about the impact of increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats.
“He says South Indian states will not be hurt in any way if the strength of the Lok Sabha is increased by 50% and the number of seats of each state is also increased by 50%,” Ramesh said in a social media post. “This is hoodwinking the people of the country.”
He added that the current gap of 60 seats between Uttar Pradesh and Kerala would increase to 90 under such a proposal. Similarly, the difference in parliamentary seats between Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu would increase to at least 61 from 41, Ramesh said.
He added: “Modi is bulldozing a proposal that will work more to the benefit of larger and populous states since their already large numbers will get further magnified.”
The Congress leader said that not just South Indian states, but also states such as Punjab, Haryana and those in the Northeast would see their relative influence decline.
Also read:
- Modi’s new parliament could see Hindi belt gain, South lose power at the Centre
- Hindi belt Opposition parties support delimitation, disagree with ally MK Stalin
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