COIMBATORE: Union home minister Amit Shah said Wednesday that CM M K Stalin is misleading people of Tamil Nadu with his claims that the state would stand to lose a number of parliamentary constituencies after the delimitation exercise. Shah’s assertion comes a day after Stalin called for an all-party meeting on March 5 to discuss the consequences of the exercise.
Addressing BJP workers here, Shah said, “The PM has made it clear that no state will lose its Lok Sabha seats due to delimitation. Instead, Tamil Nadu and other southern states will only gain constituencies on a pro rata basis.” Asking Stalin to explain the basis of his claim that TN would lose Lok Sabha seats due to delimitation, Shah said, “It is condemnable to mislead the people.”
Back of the envelope calculations using India’s population as of March 2025 according to projections by the Census office show that if no major state is to suffer a decline in LS seats but their shares are to reflect population shares, the size of LS would have to expand to about 790.
In such a scenario, Kerala’s LS seats would remain at 20 while all other major states would see an addition to their seat tally. In terms of the share of LS seats, the southern states, however, would suffer a significant loss. Presently, the five southern states amongst themselves have 129 of the 543 LS seats or about 24%. In an LS with 790 seats, they would have 152 seats or just over 19%. TN’s present share of 7.2% in the LS would reduce to 5.4%.
In contrast, the Hindi belt states of UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, MP currently have 174 or 32% of LS seats. In the 790-member House, that number would jump to 300 or about 38% of the total. UP’s tally alone would rise from the current 80 to 133 seats.
Shah’s visit to TN comes amidst an intense Centre-state tussle over alleged Hindi imposition and inadequate fund allocation. Though Shah did not delve on the Hindi imposition row, he said BJP and PM Modi respected and nurtured Tamil language and culture. “The Sengol from TN was placed in the new Parliament building.”
While Shah launched an all-out attack on DMK govt by targeting it on issues like illicit liquor, illegal sand mining and law and order, he didn’t mention BJP’s erstwhile ally AIADMK throughout his speech.
Shah said Stalin as well as his son Udhayanidhi were finding new issues to divert public attention from corruption and other issues.
On fund allocation, too, Stalin was misleading people of TN with false statements. “NDA govt has given Rs 5 lakh crore to TN in 10 years whereas UPA govt gave only 1.5 lakh crore in as many years. In addition, NDA govt has also given 1.4 lakh crore for infra development projects in TN.”
