Bhubaneswar: Senior DMK leaders, TRB Raaja and Dayanidhi Maran, met BJD president and Leader of Opposition in Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, at his residence in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
The DMK leaders conveyed Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin’s message to him, expressing concern over the delimitation issue. They also requested the BJD president to participate in the deliberations on these issues, and be part of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) against the Centre’s proposal to go in for delimitation, solely on the basis of population.
Following the meeting, Naveen gave his consent to attend the meeting to be convened by the Tamil Nadu CM on March 22.
Later speaking to the media, the DMK MP said, “It was a lovely meeting. He shares our concerns and our fears that unfair delimitation will not be good for our states. There are seven states – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Punjab which will be directly affected by delimitation in which our share will be reduced and the share of the northern states will increase. Because these states are developing states, which control the population and we have to pay a price for it. He has said that he will attend the meeting on March 22. He will fight with us…”
The DMK leaders are also likely to meet Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Bhakta Charan Das and others during their two-day visit to the state. The DMK is not only reaching out to Opposition leaders but also those within the NDA fold, like Chandrababu Naidu, on the issue of delimitation. The party has also raised the issue in Parliament.
Delimitation means the process of fixing the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each State for the Lok Sabha and Legislative assemblies. It also includes determining the seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in these houses. Article 82 and 170 of the Constitution provide that the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative assemblies as well as its division into territorial constituencies shall be readjusted after each Census. This ‘delimitation process’ is performed by the ‘Delimitation Commission’ that is set up under an act of Parliament. Such an exercise was carried out after the 1951, 1961 and 1971 Census.
Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK chief has been extremely vocal against this. He has claimed that progressive states like his own that have succeeded in keeping population in check, through family planning and women empowerment, will end up losing seats if delimitation is done solely on the basis of population.
Stalin believes that representation in Parliament from the southern states will fall from the present 26% to below 20%. At the same time, the representation from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana is likely to go up. He feels that this is a ploy by the BJP to increase its seats in Parliament.
Delimitation was last done in 1971. A 30-year moratorium was in place thereafter. It was supposed to be held in 2001, but the process was stayed for another 25 years through an Act of Parliament. It is now due in 2026.
DMK leaders will also visit states like Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab to garner support.
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