Why MK Stalin has raised the pitch on delimitation

Political parties in Tamil Nadu are demanding that the delimitation of constituencies be based on the 1971 population figures and have urged the Union government to uphold the commitment made to that effect in 2001 by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. An all-party meeting, held by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government of Tamil Nadu on March 5 in Chennai, opposed any parliamentary constituency delimitation process based on Census 2026 and said that such a move threatened India’s federal structure and the political representation rights of Tamil Nadu and other southern states. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu and other southern states would lose fair representation in Parliament if the delimitation was enforced on the basis of Census 2026. Offering a way out, D. Jayakumar of the Opposition All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said: “The only acceptable solution that would not negatively impact states like Tamil Nadu, which have successfully controlled their population, is to ensure that the current representation ratio of 7.18 per cent in Tamil Nadu remains unchanged and that the number of 39 Lok Sabha seats is maintained even after the delimitation process.” “Alternatively, if the total number of Lok Sabha constituencies remains at 543, the delimitation can be carried out within each state based on the average population per constituency, without altering the number of constituencies allocated to each state. “Tamil Nadu has played a key role in powering India’s economic growth and development, and led the way in social justice and governance, and we will not allow policies that diminish our rightful representation.” Stalin’s vocal endorsement of delimitation stems from the historical inequities in representational apportionment between the southern and northern states.