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DMK Sets Conditions to Back Centre's Delimitation Bill, credit: X
New Delhi: The DMK has said it would support the proposed delimitation Bill only if the Centre met its major demands.
The party wants the current one to be prorogued, that is, in place today, to carry out any redistribution of Lok Sabha seats. The current one, which is based on the 1971 Census, will end following the completion of the Census in 2027. The DMK has prayed the Centre to allow it for another 25 years. It states that states that have controlled their population growth rate should not lose at the expense of other states.
The DMK has also asked the Centre to allow 50 per cent growth in the number of Lok Sabha seats for every state. As per the party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured this move verbally during the discussion of the delimitation package in Parliament earlier this year. The party believes that increasing the number of seats for all the states by the same count would preserve the proportionality and make it possible for some states to keep up with the growing population.
The Centre is trying to create a political base for the Constitutional Amendment Bill, which requires a two-thirds majority in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to become law. Delimitation remains a sensitive issue, especially for the southern states, and support from regional parties is crucial for the government.
Delimitation is the redrawing of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies based on the latest population figures. Several southern states have voiced concerns that a new delimitation exercise, based on the future Census figures, may lead to a loss of their share of Lok Sabha seats as their population has grown at a slower rate than the northern states.
