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The impressive gathering in Chennai, on March 22, 2025, which brought together leaders from several States — including four Chief Ministers — for the inaugural meeting of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) on Fair Delimitation, sent a clear message: any delimitation exercise based solely on the current population figures is unacceptable. The meeting’s primary demand — to extend the freeze on the number of parliamentary constituencies based on the 1971 Census for another 25 years — echoes a similar resolution passed at a recent meeting of parties in Tamil Nadu, which proposed a 30-year extension. This concept of a freeze is not new; it was implemented through the 42nd Amendment (until 2000) and extended again via the 84th Amendment (until 2026). Rightly, the JAC emphasised that States which have successfully implemented family planning should not be penalised with reduced parliamentary representation. This concern, which is particularly prominent in the South, should not be dismissed as a regional issue, despite the strong southern presence at the meeting, which was hosted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and attended by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. The meeting also saw participation from outside the South, including Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Odisha’s former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who, in an online address, reinforced the message against punishing States for effective population control measures. It is after a long time that parties across regions and ideologies are uniting on a substantive issue — representative democracy — rather than forming opportunistic electoral coalitions that lack policy coherence.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s working president, K.T. Rama Rao, proposed considering a State’s fiscal contribution as a parameter in the delimitation process — an idea that may help address the concerns of the southern States. But it might not make sense to predicate decisions with long-term consequences such as delimitation on factors that change from one year to another. In any case, the Union government must act without delay to begin nationwide consultations involving a wide range of parties. Before initiating the Delimitation Commission, it should facilitate inclusive dialogue, regardless of when the next Census — an essential prerequisite — is conducted. So far, statements from Union Ministers have failed to provide clarity. The Centre must recognise the importance of transparency and consultation on this inexplicable delay. Inexplicable, unless petty political calculations are factored in.
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Published – March 24, 2025 12:20 am IST
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Petty politics: On the delimitation issue, the Census
