Naveen Patnaik calls delimitation of constituencies injustice to Odisha

Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik addressed a meeting online convened by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on delimitation of seats in Chennai

Bhubaneswar: Population should not be the only criteria to determine number of seats in the highest representative body of our country, former Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik said on Saturday. He called delimitation of constituencies an injustice to Odisha.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik speaks via video conferencing in Chennai (PTI)

Addressing a meeting online convened by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on delimitation of seats in Chennai, Patnaik said delimitation based only on population figures will be unfair to the states who have worked hard to reduce their population growth rates in line with national priorities.

“Odisha has done well in successfully reducing its fertility rates over the years. If projected population figures of 2026 are taken, we will end up losing seats in the Lok Sabha and in the state assembly. States like Odisha would have reduced their population growth rates after years of persistent efforts should not be disincentivised, especially as they have performed very well on a national priority. The BJD will doeverything to protect the interests of the people of Odisha,” he said.

Population control is an important national agenda for the development of our country. “A national agenda was decentralized into state interventions and throughout the years, the union government gave high priority towards this. States also took their own initiatives and joined in successfully implementing the national agenda and the states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Odisha have been very successful in this regard. In case these states had not achieved what they did in stabilizing population, India would have had a population explosion today derailing our developmental progress,” he said, suggesting that Centre should take up a detailed discussion with all the parties so as to remove any doubts on the issue.

Though Patnaik was invited by DMK to attend the meet, he sent former lawmaker Amar Patnaik and former minister Sanjay Dasburma to attend the meet at Chennai while joined online.

Odisha currently has 21 Lok Sabha seats, a number fixed based on the 1971 Census and maintained through subsequent freezes on seat reallocation (via the 42nd Amendment in 1976 and the 84th Amendment in 2001). The delimitation process will adjust the number of seats allotted to each state according to its population, aiming to uphold the principle of “one person, one vote, one value.”

According to BJD leaders, Odisha’s population growth rate has been relatively moderate compared to northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, by 2026, Odisha’s population will still be lower than that of states with historically higher growth rates and the state could lose out a couple of its 21 Lok Sabha seats to northern states with larger populations.