Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy moved a resolution against delimitation in the legislative assembly on Thursday. “The house expresses its deep concern on the manner in which the impending delimitation exercise is being planned, without transparent consultations with stakeholders,” it read.
The resolution was later adopted by the House and passed. Reddy posted about it on X stating: “…We passed a resolution today asking the Centre not to take any steps that compromise the political self-respect and legitimate rights of our people. People of Telangana and citizens of all other states of south India are united in protecting our rights”.
He added: “We will fight against all attempts to take away our rights. The first battle was won today. The war ahead is long but we will eventually prevail.”
The resolution is in line with Reddy’s statement at the Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting hosted by Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin in Chennai on March 22. Reddy, who promised to move a resolution in the Telangana legislative assembly, had asked his peers from other southern states to pass similar resolutions in their legislative assemblies.
“The House urges that any delimitation exercise should be carried out transparently and after extensive consultations with all state governments, all political parties and all stakeholders. The States which have effectively implemented the population control program pushed by the Centre, and consequently whose population share has come down, should not be penalised and population should not be the sole yardstick for delimitation,” it states.
The resolution noted that “the purpose and intent behind the 2nd, 84th and 87th Constitutional amendments aimed at national population stabilisation are yet to be achieved”.
“Hence, while continuing with the freeze on the number of Parliamentary seats, taking State as a unit, redrawing the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies can be taken up, duly augmenting the SC and ST seats as per latest population and also providing for reservation for women,” it states.
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The resolution also demanded an increase in the seats in the state Assembly from 119 to 153, as promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Reddy noted that Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim saw an increase in the number of seats in the legislative assembly based on the 2011 census. “The House is moving this legislation to expose the contradictory policies of the Centre,” Reddy said.
The CM said that the parties represented in Telangana’s legislative assembly should be “united” in adopting the resolution. “The Centre wants to control the states using delimitation. If the delimitation exercise is carried out on the basis of population, the southern states’ share in the national pool will drop from 24 percent to 19 percent,” Reddy said.
In the meeting convened in Chennai, it was decided that the next Joint Action Committee meeting will be held in Hyderabad. Telangana’s opposition party, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), had supported this move. Bharatiya Janata Partywhich is in opposition in the state, stayed away from the meeting.
