Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 14 (PTI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday opposed the central government’s “unilateral” move to carry out a parliamentary constituency delimitation, terming it as “hasty” and announced his support for the conference organised by Tamil Nadu against it.
Tamil Nadu CM and DMK supremo, M K Stalin, has organised a conference on March 22 in Chennai against the “unilateral parliamentary constituency delimitation attempt” by the BJP-led central government and Vijayan conveyed his solidarity with the event.
The Kerala CM expressed his support through a statement titled “Constituency Delimitation: Unity Against the Unilateral Move,” after Tamil Nadu IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and MP Dr Tamizhachi Thangapandian personally met him to extend Stalin’s invitation for the conference, according to a statement from Vijayan’s office.
The statement, however, did not specifically mention whether Vijayan would attend the conference.
Later, in another statement by his office, Vijayan said that the central government should take a decision regarding the parliamentary constituency delimitation by taking into consideration everyone’s opinions on the matter.
Sharing his concerns on the issue, the CM said that the delimitation should not result in reduction of the existing proportional share of seats of any state in the Parliament.
He also said that the delimitation exercise should not result in reduction of seats of states that effectively implemented population control measures, as it would be tantamount to punishing them for their efforts.
Vijayan said that it would be unfair to reduce the proportional representation in Parliament of states that have reduced their population in accordance with the population control programmes and family planning policies introduced by the central government after independence.
“It would be tantamount to rewarding states that have failed to implement these measures,” he contended.
He said that earlier the delimitation was carried out in 1952, 1963 and 1973 and in 1976, through the 42nd Constitutional amendment, the process was put on hold till the first census after 2000 which was to be in 2001.
“This was to encourage population control. As the population disparity among the states continued, this freeze was extended till the first census after 2026, that is till 2031, through the 84th Constitutional amendment.
“That situation still exists. The new hasty move of the central government is without taking that into account,” he contended.
Vijayan also said, in the statement, that the Centre’s claims, that the southern states will get additional seats on a pro-rata basis after the delimitation, “cannot be taken at face value”.
He pointed out that the central government has not clarified whether the pro-rata distribution was based on the percentage of the current parliamentary seats or on the basis of population figures.
“In either case, the south-Indian states will end up losing representation,” he claimed and demanded that the central government address the concerns of the southern states.
He emphasised that it was the responsibility of the central government to “avoid unilateral measures and preserve the essence of democracy and federalism”. PTI HMP TGB HMP ROH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.