2 days ago
Census 2027 is BJP's plan to reduce Tamil Nadu's parliamentary seats: Stalin
After officials of the Union government on Wednesday said that the long-delayed census will be carried out in two phases before March 1, 2027, Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin said that the Constitution of India mandates that the delimitation exercise must follow the first census after 2026.
'The BJP has now delayed the census to 2027, making their plan clear to reduce Tamil Nadu's parliamentary representation. I had warned about this. It is now unfolding,' Stalin said.
He further said that Tamil Nadu's main opposition AIADMK led by Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) 'is not just silent but complicit in this betrayal. It's now clear that he has surrendered to Delhi's domination.' He made the remarks while referring to the Dravidian party joining hands with the BJP in April, 19 months after they split, to fight the 2026 assembly elections together.
In March, Stalin led a joint action committee (JAC) comprising the chief ministers of four states and political parties from three others calling for a fair delimitation. They said that the delimitation based on exercise would penalise southern states like them that had brought the population under control.
The JAC urged the Centre to extend the freeze on the delimitation on parliamentary constituencies by another 25 years, upping the ante on a contentious exercise that can widen the chasm between India's northern and southern regions. The meeting had representatives from seven states, including chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Punjab and Kerala, and the deputy chief minister of Karnataka. Bharat Rashtra Samithi working chief KT Rama Rao also attended the meeting while Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik joined virtually.
'The people of Tamil Nadu are united as one in their demand for a fair Delimitation,' Stalin said late on Wednesday. 'We need clear answers from the Union government.'
The next meeting of the JAC will be held in Hyderabad. At the heart of the spiralling controversy is the issue of delimitation – originally scheduled for 2026 – which redefines the number of representatives a state sends to the Lok Sabha on the basis of population. A 2019 analysis by Milan Vaishnaw and Jamie Hintson of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, projected that such an exercise could see the overall strength of the Lok Sabha rising to 848, with Uttar Pradesh alone seeing its tally increase from the current 80 to 143 by 2026. In contrast, Tamil Nadu, which currently sends 39 representatives, could see the number rise to just 49. Kerala, which sends 20, would see no change at all.
The 42nd amendment to the Constitution in 1976 froze delimitation based on the 1971 census, to promote family planning and population control. Then, in 2001, the 84th Amendment to the Constitution extended the freeze until 2026. When the delimitation happened in 2008, the total number of seats remained the same but the constituency boundaries were redrawn.
