‘North will make us secondary citizens’: Telangana CM Revanth Reddy's delimitation warning

Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy asked the Centre to not increase Lok Sabha seat numbers during delimitation.

Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy reiterated his opposition to population-based delimitation on Saturday, saying that if the exercise is carried out, South India “will lose its political voice.”

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Telangana CM Revanth Reddy, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar and others during the first Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting of states over the proposed delimitation of Parliamentary seats by the Centre, in Chennai on Saturday.(PTI)

"In case of population-based delimitation, “north will make us secondary citizens. If BJP does delimitation exercise based on population, south India will lose its political voice. South will not accept population-based delimitation,” PTI quoted Reddy as saying at the Joint Action Committee meeting on delimitation in Chennai.

Reddy asked the Centre to not increase Lok Sabha seat numbers during delimitation.

“We have a big challenge facing the country, the BJP is implementing a policy of demographic penalty. Since 1971, when India decided to adopt family planning as a national priority, South India has done very well, but big states in North India have failed,” Reddy said.

“We (South India) achieved fastest economic growth, higher GDP, higher per capita income, more job creation, better development and best social welfare. For every ₹1 tax paid by Tamil Nadu, it gets back 26 paise, likewise Karnataka 16 paise, Telangana 42 paise, Kerala 49 paise. But when Bihar ₹1 tax, it gets back ₹6.6, UP gets ₹2.2, Madhya Pradesh ₹1.73. We are one country and we respect it, but we cannot accept this proposed delimitation because it will politically limit us,” he added.

Next meeting on delimitation in Hyderabad, says Stalin

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin said that the next meeting on delimitation of constituencies will be held in Hyderabad.

During the meeting, Stalin made it clear the fight is likely to be taken forward through the legal route also.

"We are not against delimitation, we are for fair delimitation," the Tamil Nadu chief minister said, adding, "continuous action is very essential to establish rights."

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said the delimitation of LS seats was hanging like the "sword of Damocles," and alleged the BJP government was going ahead on the issue without any consultation.

(With PTI inputs)