Amid southern states’ pushback against the delimitation exercise, former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha is batting for it. Speaking with The Indian Express, Kushwaha, whose Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) is part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, called the southern states’ demand for status quo “irrational”.
These remarks come at a time when southern states have been pushing back against the delimitation exercise, which they believe will lead to them losing Lok Sabha seats. Significantly, Kushwaha’s Koeri caste group form 4.2% – the biggest after Yadavs at 14.4% – and are spread across 17 districts.
“Southern states had been in favour of delimitation until it registered good population growth. Now that they have managed to control the population, they are afraid of losing Lok Sabha seats,” Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha said. “On the contrary, states like Bihar registered very low population growth till 1971 and its Lok Sabha seats did not go up. Now that our population has grown phenomenally over the last 50 years, the number of its Lok Sabha seats must go up accordingly for better and effective management of constituencies.”
On March 22, prominent politicians from seven states gathered at a Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting in Chennai to demand a 25-year freeze on delimitation on the basis of population. First brought in by the then Congress government through a legislation in 1976, the freeze means that delimitation of constituencies would be on based on the 1971 caste census and that the exercise cannot be done for another 25 years.
In 2001, the freeze was extended for another 25 years till 2026.
In his interview, Kushwaha accused southern states of “applying pressure on the Centre” as the 25-year embargo is set to end. “A rough assessment shows the number of seats in Parliament would be 846 and Bihar would have 79 (from 40) seats,” Kushwaha said.
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