Why is Tamil Nadu opposing delimitation? | Focus Tamil Nadu

Presiding over a mass wedding recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had said in the good old days, couples would be greeted by saying ‘Be blessed with 16 and live prosperously’. This did not mean begetting 16 children. However, in the context of the State facing a likely reduction in its parliamentary seats, he said it has come to a question as to why should we have a small family and it has made us think why should we not go for 16 children.

These remarks that came soon after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had questioned the small family norm, cannot be taken in just a lighter vein.

This needs to be seen against the backdrop of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously adopting a resolution in February this year opposing the proposed delimitation exercise that would likely be based on the deferred 2021 decennial census.

What is delimitation? Article 82 of the Constitution mandates a delimitation exercise to be undertaken by a Delimitation Commission to determine the number of seats in each State for the Lok Sabha and the respective Legislative Assemblies in addition to reserving seats for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Such readjustment is required to be done after each decennial census. It was on this basis that the seats were readjusted every 10 years until 1971. So the total seats in the Lok Sabha went up from 494 to 543, with an average population of 10.1 lakh per seat.

However, after 1971, through a Constitutional Amendment, delimitation was frozen first until 2000, and again extended till 2026. This was done to encourage population control measures so that States with higher population growth do not end up having higher number of seats.

In between, however, the boundaries of territorial constituencies were readjusted without changing the number of seats based on the 2001 Census. That is when some parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu like Perambalur were deserved, Nilgiris became a reserved seat and the Periyakulam seat was renamed Theni, etc.

Now the next delimitation is slated for the first Census after 2026. Ideally, this would have meant that the next delimitation would be based on the 2031 census. However, since the COVID pandemic delayed the last 2021 Census, the apprehension is that this delayed Census would form the basis for the delimitation.

So, why is that Tamil Nadu and southern States are opposing this proposed delimitation?

Credits

Presentation: D. Suresh Kumar

Video: Shiva Raj

Production: Shibu Narayan