"Will Thwart Centre's Conspiracies": Revanth Reddy On Delimitation

The delimitation exercise, due to take place before the 2029 general election, is actually a means to limit South India and reduce its importance and an action plan is being prepared to counter it, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said today. Mr Reddy, who received Tamil Nadu's invitation to participate in an all-party meeting on the matter on March 22, also said the BJP does not have much representation from the southern states and "wants to take revenge on these states".

"We will thwart the conspiracies hatched by the BJP-led Central government against the southern states," he said, underscoring that he is extending full support to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, who is playing a key role on the issue of delimitation.

In his invitation for the March 22 meeting, Mr Stalin said there are provisions that indicate that the delimitation of constituencies should not be carried out until the national census is conducted after 2026. Even so, the central government has "brought this process to the fore before the census".

The Chief Ministers from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Odisha and Punjab have already been invited to join the Joint Action Committee (JAC) to deal with this matter.

Tamil Nadu has been spearheading the opposition to delimitation -- the exercise to redraw constituencies on basis of population.

The southern state contends that against the untrammelled population of northern states that would increase their seats in parliament, its success with family planning would only penalise it with a reduced number.

Both Chief Minister Stalin and his son and Deputy Udhayanidhi Stalin have asked newlyweds to have children immediately.

"We will win 200-plus seats in Tamil Nadu in the 2026 elections. I request the couples who are getting married to be concerned about childbirth as soon as possible. Our state implemented birth control first, and due to this, we are now facing issues," Udhayanidhi Stalin said yesterday after presiding over a mass wedding in Chennai.

Tamil Nadu, Udhayanidhi Stalin said, the state with 39 seats might lose up to eight seats in the delimitation exercise while northern states that failed to check population would get around 100 seats. 

Last month, Union minister Amit Shah had addressed the issue, saying it would not reduce the number of seats in southern states even by one. 

"I want to reassure the people of South India that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kept your interest in mind and will make sure that not even one seat is reduced. And whatever increase is there, southern states will get a fair share, there is no reason to doubt this... The Modi government has made it clear in Lok Sabha that after delimitation, on pro rata basis, not a single seat will be reduced in any southern state," he said.