Reinforcing their opposition, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Friday that the proposed delimitation exercise would be an ‘open assault’ on federalism. He stated that he had written to several Chief Ministers, former chief ministers, asking them to oppose what he called a ‘democratic injustice’ of punishing such states for effective population control and good governance.
On the social media platform X, Stalin said: “The Union Govt’s plan for #Delimitation is a blatant assault on federalism, punishing States that ensured population control & good governance by stripping away our rightful voice in Parliament. We will not allow this democratic injustice!”
Stalin addressed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi in his letter. He also asked party heads in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Odisha and Punjab to strike a united stand against what he called ‘an unfair exercise.’
The delimitation process, which was supposed to be finished in 2026, aims to redefine the number of Lok Sabha seats a state will have according to its population. However, Stalin and several other leaders believe that states that are successful in checking population growth should not be disadvantaged by lesser parliamentary representation. The critics fear that this exercise may be the first step in moving the balance of political power away from the states of higher population growth and may weaken the contribution of southern and eastern states in making decisions on the national level policy.
The appeal by Stalin for ‘an uncompromising fight’ is a signal of intensifying opposition to the delimitation exercise, thus heralding a massive political battle on the future of India’s federal structure.
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