Change in constituency: Congress, Communist Party of India oppose

Tamil Nadu: The Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) parties have opposed the realignment of constituencies.

K. Selvapperundhagai (Tamil Nadu Congress): If parliamentary constituencies are redrawn across India, the representation of southern states in the Lok Sabha will decline from 23.74 percent to 18.97 percent. Like Tamil Nadu, in a unified Andhra Pradesh, the current 42 seats will be reduced to 34. In contrast, the state of Uttar Pradesh will see an increase from the current 80 Lok Sabha seats to 91. Similarly, Bihar is expected to have 40 to 50 seats, Madhya Pradesh from 29 to 33, and Rajasthan from 26 to 31. Hindi-speaking states are expected to see an increase of 63 seats to 143.

M. Veerapandian (Communist Party of India): The Communist Party of India strongly supports 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures. However, the central government’s approach of essentially linking women’s reservations to constituency redistricting is an attempt to use women’s rights as a political bluff.

Delimitation is a democratic process enshrined in Articles 81, 82, and 170 of the Constitution. Hastily implementing it based on 2011 census data without a new census is unfair to southern states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, which have successfully implemented population control measures.