Hyderabad:An all-party meeting convened by the Telangana People’s Voice for Fair Delimitation on Saturday felt that delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies based purely on population would cause serious injustice to the southern states, and demanded that the exercise be postponed for another 25 years.
If the Centre insisted on proceeding with the delimitation of states, the constituencies should be increased based on a 2:1 ratio per existing Lok Sabha seats for each state, it demanded.
The meeting urged the Centre to hold discussions with all states before taking a decision on delimitation. It alleged that the Centre was acting unilaterally regarding the delimitation process and warned that any move to politically punish states that have successfully implemented population control and contributed to national development would not be tolerated.
The meeting accused the BJP of conspiring to increase seats in northern states through population-based delimitation to gain political advantage, while reducing the number of seats in the South. It called for all political parties, intellectuals, and communities from southern states to unite and fight to protect their interests.
TPCC senior vice president M.R.G. Vinod Reddy said that the BJP is secretly pushing its agenda by increasing Lok Sabha seats from the northern states, at the cost of the southern states under the guise of population-based delimitation. He stressed that the BJP’s actions must be resisted to prevent injustice to the southern states that are playing a key role in the nation’s development through GDP, I-T, and other contributions.
CPI state executive committee member Pasya Padma criticised the BJP for undemocratically and selfishly planning to reduce Lok Sabha seats in southern states to cement its political dominance.
Former MLC K. Yadava Reddy presented a draft report on the issues related to delimitation. He said that apart from population, factors like GDP contribution, human development index (HDI), and literacy should also be considered in the delimitation process. He demanded that the southern states, which contribute 36 per cent to the nation’s GDP, should be allocated 36 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats.
