Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has called on seven counterparts, including Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and BJP-ruled Odisha’s Mohan Chandra Majhi, to join a ‘joint action committee’ of political parties against the delimitation exercise proposed by the centre.
The DMK leader has asked Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah, Telangana’s Revanth Reddy, Andhra Pradesh’s Chandrababu Naidu, and Puducherry’s N Rangaswamy, and Ms Banerjee and Mr Majhi for a meeting in Chennai on March 22 “to chart a collective course”.
Mr Stalin and his government have been vociferously protesting against the centre’s ‘imposition of Hindi’ and the delimitation exercise, arguing neither is necessary and, combined, amount to an attack on the federal nature of the Constitution and on the Tamil people and language.
The centre has refused both charges, countering the ‘imposition’ claims by saying its education policy and the three-language formula does not force any student to study Hindi, and criticism of delimitation by insisting Tamil Nadu and the southern states will not be disadvantaged.
Stalin’s Letter To 7 Chief Ministers
Mr Stalin’s proposed meeting is expected to address the latter, which the Tamil Nadu leader warned could diminish the influence of states that have managed to control population levels.
In his letter, he pointed out delimitation exercises after 1976 were frozen by a 2002 amendment, passed when the BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister – that said changes to the overall number of Lok Sabha seats – now 543 – would be frozen till at least 2026.
However, the centre’s plan for a delimitation now means states that have controlled population could face a reduction in the number of Lok Sabha seats allotted, while others, such as BJP-ruled states in the north, will get more seats because of vastly increased populations.
“Delimitation math is simple and sobering. Reports suggest the exercise is being considered based on population (and) with two potential approaches. In the first case, the existing 543 seats will be redistributed. In the second, the total number could be increased beyond 800.”
“In both scenarios, states that have successfully implemented population control measures stand to lose significantly if the exercise is based on post-2026 population levels,” Mr Stalin wrote, “We should not be penalised for effectively controlling population growth…”
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was also critical of ‘assurances’ provided by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who insisted the southern states would not lose a single Lok Sabha seat.
Mr Stalin, though, was not convinced, pointing out the Home Minister had not also said northern states, or any others, would not get more instead, thereby still reducing the importance of Tamil Nadu, which is among the highest contributors to the Indian economy.
The letter follows an appeal this week to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Stalin had asked Mr Modi to ensure that delimitation, if to be done now, is based on 1971 population data and then frozen for 30 years to motivate other states to control growth.
This was part of a resolution tabled by Tamil political parties, a meeting the BJP and its local allies boycotted. Actor Vijay’s TVK, seen as a dark horse for next year’s state election, attended.
The resolution also sought assurances that any increase in number of MPs will be based on the same proportion – MPs to states – as laid out based the 1971 census.
The delimitation row has gathered pace in the build-up to the next election, with DMK leaders even urging newlywed couples to have more children to up the state’s population count.
