Political temperatures are set to rise as India prepares for a delimitation excercise aimed at increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in line with the country's changing demographics.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has proposed to form a Joint Action Committee (JAC) on delimitation. Stalin's party, the DMK, is reaching out to the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Telangana. DMK is also hoping to get Odisha, Punjab, and West Bengal on board the proposed JAC. BJD chief and former Odisha CM, Naveen Patnaik, has confirmed his party's participation in the JAC meeting called by Stalin in Chennai on March 22.
Political leaders from the south are demanding either a status quo or a delimitation exercise that maintains the existing ratio of Parliamentary seats among the states. Leaders from the south are apprehensive that due to the higher population growth of the northern states, the southern states may end up having lower representation in Parliament.
The last delimitation of the Parliamentary seats happened in 1973 and came into effect in 1976. Congress government of Indira Gandhi through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment froze delimitation for 25 years in 1976.
The next delimitation was due in 2002 when India was going through a phase of coalition governments. Under the pressure of the political parties from southern states, the scope of the 2002 delimitation exercise was limited to redrawing the boundaries of the existing Parliamentary and Assembly seats.