Home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday accused Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin of raising a false alarm over delimitation and asserted that the southern states would not lose a single Lok Sabha seat because of the exercise, seeking to fight off a potential political backlash hinged on the north-south divide.
Shah’s assertion came against the backdrop of the DMK chief launching an aggressive campaign against the BJP for allegedly imposing Hindi on Tamil Nadu and raising the fear of the entire south losing its say in Parliament owing to a possible decrease in the number of seats in the Lok Sabha from the region after the redrafting of constituencies based on population. The delimitation issue was “hanging over the southern states like a sword,” Stalin said on Tuesday.
“Mr Stalin, the Modi government has made it clear in the Lok Sabha that after delimitation, on a pro-rata basis, not a single seat will be reduced in any southern state,” Shah said, addressing a party meeting in Tamil Nadu. He accused Stalin of “lying” and “misleading the people with false claims on delimitation” and went on to repeat his assurance.
“I want to reassure the people of south India that Modiji has kept your interest in mind to make sure that not even one seat is reduced pro rata. And whatever increase is there overall, southern states will get a fair share, there is no reason to doubt this,” he added.
The BJP is wary of the possibility of the south joining hands, cutting across political lines, as not only the Opposition DMK but also a key saffron party ally, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, has flagged the issue. Citing concerns over an ageing population, the TDP chief has urged people in the southern states to produce more children, promising to incentivise families with more kids.
The DMK, however, has seized on the issue to take on the BJP, which is trying to spread wings in Tamil Nadu. Stalin has convened a meeting of all parties in Tamil Nadu on March 5 to discuss the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies. Tamil Nadu goes to the polls in 2026 and the ruling DMK appears to be pitching language and delimitation as its election planks.
The delimitation exercise to redraft parliamentary constituencies based on population is expected to start after the Centre completes the much-delayed census by 2026. The current strength of the Lok Sabha (543) is based on the 1971 census. A sharp jump in the number of seats is expected because of the population explosion in the last five decades. The Modi government has also promised to introduce 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the state legislatures after the census, followed by the delimitation of constituencies.
The south fears that based on the population criteria, the region stands to lose its share in Parliament because of the successful implementation of population control measures in these states vis-à-vis the north. The population growth since 1971 has been uneven with the northern states registering a big jump compared to the south. While various relevant criteria can be fixed by the delimitation council to redraft constituencies, population will take primacy.
“Tamil Nadu succeeded in population control through the family planning programme. Just because the population is less, there is a situation where our Lok Sabha seats could be reduced. We stand to lose eight seats and as a result we would have only 31 MPs and not 39,” Stalin said on Tuesday while calling for the all-party meeting.
While Shah sought to counter this by stressing that the southern states would see no decrease in their current Lok Sabha strength and would be allotted a “fair share” in case of an increase in seats, BJP general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh claimed the south’s current proportion would be safeguarded. The BJP has been desperately striving to get a foothold in the wider south that remains out of bounds for the party.
“Landing a tight slap on @mkstalin, the king of lies and false narratives, home minister Sri@AmitShah in Kovai tells that ‘PM Sri@narendramodi has stated that whenever delimitation happens every state will get same percentage of seats in Lok Sabha as much as they have now’,” Santosh, who hails from Karnataka, wrote on X.
Despite the claim, the recent delimitation experience in Jammu and Kashmir, based on which the polls were held in September, presents a different picture. After delimitation, the number of Assembly segments in Jammu and Kashmir increased from 83 (excluding Ladakh) to 90. Six of the seven additional seats fell in the Hindu-majority Jammu region and one in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
