Jagan voiced concerns over the injustice that would be meted out to the southern states if the delimitation exercise is carried out as proposed.
Published Mar 22, 2025 | 2:48 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 22, 2025 | 2:48 PM
YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote to Prime Minster Narendra Modi demanding a fair delimitation process.
Synopsis: Jagan Mohan Reddy urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that no state would lose its representation in law-making bodies as a result of the planned delimitation of constituencies.
YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday, 22 March, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure a fair delimitation exercise that would not slash the representation of any state in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.
The former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh raised the demand in a letter to the prime minister even as a conclave of the Joint Action Committee on fair delimitation, convened by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, was in progress in Chennai.
Jagan, who skipped the Chennai meeting without citing any reason, however, chose to write to the prime minister, voicing concerns over the injustice that would be done to southern states if the delimitation exercise was carried out as currently proposed. He suggested an amendment to the Constitution of India to rectify the anomaly.
Describing the issue as of utmost importance for the entire nation, the former chief minister said that the delimitation would impact the political representation of some states in the policy and law-making process and the sentiments of a vast section of the population.
He pointed out the widespread concern over the population imbalance that persists in different states. The apparent objective of the 42nd and 84th constitutional amendments in freezing the allocation of seats was the hope that, over time, all states would be able to demonstrate similar levels of success concerning the family planning exercise, and the states’ share of the country’s population would be restored to 1971 levels.
However, with the census numbers of 2011 and other estimates of the decadal growth of population in the states, this does not seem to be the case.
The share of the southern states in the country’s population has reduced over the 40 years between 1971 and 2011.
“We believe that the share has reduced even further over the last 15-year period. This reduction in share has resulted from the sincerity of the southern states in implementing the population control programme, which was a national priority,” Jagan said.
The former chief minister, with the help of a table, explained how the southern states’ share of India’s population had declined. He said that if it was 24.80 percent in 1971, it shrank to 20.88 percent in the 2011 census.
Jagan expressed concern over the possible erosion of southern states’ participation in national policy-making if the delimitation process was conducted based on the states’ present population.
He said that though he was thankful for the Union Home Minister’s assurance that the delimitation exercise would be undertaken mindful of the need to ensure a proportionate increase of seats for all states, he, however, wanted to point out the constitutional impediment to such a relaxation.
“Article 81(2)(a) of the Constitution reads as follows: ‘There shall be allotted to each state several seats in the House of the People in such a manner that the ratio between that number and the population of the state is, so far as practicable, the same for all states.’ In these circumstances, it is imperative that the ratio has to be maintained as warranted by the Constitution, which means that it would come in the way of fulfilling the Union Home Minister’s assurance,” Jagan wrote.
He said that the 84th constitutional amendment had extended the already existing constitutional embargo on the delimitation process. The embargo would end in 2026, by the constitutional amendment. Furthermore, the process of the census, which was scheduled to take place in 2021, was delayed owing to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that the census process would be completed by 2026. The constitutional framework mandated the readjustment of the allocation of seats in the House of the People to the states and the division of each state into territorial constituencies after the census exercise.
“In light of the fact that the constitutional embargo will end, the conclusion of the census exercise in 2026 would inevitably be followed by a delimitation process. This assumption has caused severe anxiety for several states, particularly southern states, who fear that their representation would be diminished,” he said.
The YSRCP leader said that in the present circumstances, the ratio as warranted by the Constitution must be maintained. To facilitate this, there has to be an amendment to the Constitution to give effect to such a proportionate increase in seats for each state.
This would ensure that no state would have to encounter any reduction in its representation in Parliament.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
