Now Reading: Shivakumar warns delimitation will choke South India’s voice
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Shivakumar warns delimitation will choke South India’s voice
Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said on Monday that expanding the Lok Sabha by 50 per cent based on population would choke South India's political voice. Speaking at the India Today Karnataka…
Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said on Monday that expanding the Lok Sabha by 50 per cent based on population would choke South India's political voice. Speaking at the India Today Karnataka Roundtable, he argued that states that followed the Centre's population policy should not be penalised with fewer seats.
Shivakumar said northern states would gain disproportionately from any increase. He proposed keeping the existing seat strength and accommodating women's reservation within it. He added that Tamil Nadu and Kerala shared the same opposition to raising the number of parliamentary seats.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Delimitation has been a ticking political issue since the 2002 freeze on seat numbers was written into the Constitution. Southern states worry that using the next Census data will shrink their share because they followed family-planning norms while northern states did not. The real stake is not just Lok Sabha numbers: Finance Commission grants and central tax devolution also use population weight, so the South could lose money and seats together. The next Census will trigger this reallocation, but the government has not yet set a date for it, leaving every state guessing.
Source: indiatoday.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
