Centre trying to distort parliamentary representation through delimitation: Kerala CM

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday alleged that the Union government was trying to “distort representation in Parliament” by implementing the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader accused the Sangh Parivar, of which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is a part, of waging “an open assault” on India’s federal system. He made the remarks after attending a joint action committee meeting on delimitation hosted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin in Chennai Saturday.

“By unilaterally enforcing delimitation without consulting states, the BJP-led Union Government seeks to distort representation in Parliament and consolidate power for its political advantage,” Vijayan said. “This is a calculated move to undermine states that have responsibly implemented population control.”

Delimitation is the process of fixing the boundaries of electoral constituencies. Article 82 of the Constitution states that after every census is completed, the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to each state must be adjusted based on changes in their population.

The composition of the current Lok Sabha is based on the 1971 census. According to the 84th Amendment Act of 2001, the constituency boundaries were frozen until the first census after 2026, which would be due in 2031.

However, southern states have expressed concern that population-based delimitation could give an undue advantage to northern and central states in the Lok Sabha.

The first meeting of the joint action committee against the proposed delimitation took place on Saturday. Fourteen leaders from at least five states across the country, including Vijayan, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann were present.

The committee passed a resolution urging the Union government to extend the freeze on the boundaries for the constituencies based on the 1971 census for another 25 years.

On February 25, Stalin had claimed that the delimitation exercise could cost his state eight Lok Sabha seats.

A day later, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the southern states would not lose a single Lok Sabha seat on account of delimitation.

Ahead of the meeting on Saturday, Stalin claimed that the assurance made by Shah that southern states would not lose parliamentary seats due to the proposed delimitation exercise was “ambiguous”, The Indian Express reported.

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