Southern states have been strongly opposing the Centre’s decision on the delimitation process without considering the views of the states. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin started the fight on this issue first. CM Revanth Reddy also introduced a resolution in the Legislative Assembly condemning the delimitation process.
In the resolution, he demanded that the parliamentary constituencies not be re-divided according to the 2026 census and that the existing constituencies should be continued. Along with this, he said that the assembly constituencies in Telangana should be increased to 153 and that the SC and ST seats should be increased according to the population.
He cited that the constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam were increased for the benefit of the party in power at the Centre. He asserted that the Telangana Assembly is strongly condemning the central government’s failure to take the views of the states on delimitation.
He cautioned that there is a danger that delimitation will become a limitation for the South. Since 1971, Revanth Reddy said that the southern states have effectively implemented population control policies. But he deplored that population control has not been done in the northern states. It is not right to want to conduct a census in 2026 and then carry out delimitation of constituencies, he added.
He made it clear that states whose population has decreased should not suffer from this. He cautioned that delimitation is likely to cause serious injustice to the southern states in terms of economic benefits as well as jobs and employment. He said that if the Centre redistributes Lok Sabha seats, governments will be formed at the Centre without the involvement of the South.
“Currently, delimitation is being done on the basis of population. Delimitation was stopped for 25 years by a constitutional amendment in 1971. There is confusion over delimitation. Recently, the Tamil Nadu CM convened a meeting on delimitation. It was resolved that the delimitation of constituencies based on population will not be accepted. Vajpayee also opposed the delimitation of constituencies based on population”, Revanth Reddy said.
He deplored that though the constituencies of Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir were increased based on the 2011 population, the assembly seats of Telugu states were not increased due to lack of political benefit to the party in power at the center.
Though the southern states, which have 24 percent representation, are paying 36 percent taxes to the center, Revanth Reddy said that the center is giving a larger share of taxes to UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
