Concerns of South to be taken care of during delimitation of Lok Sabha seats

New Delhi: Concerns of Southern states will be taken care of during the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies, a senior government functionary said on Tuesday, assuring the five states they would not suffer and asking them not to have any apprehension about the exercise.

Delimitation literally means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body. The job of delimitation is assigned to a high-powered body. The body is known as Delimitation Commission or a Boundary Commission.

In India, such Delimitation Commissions have been constituted four times: in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952; in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962; in 1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002.

"The census will be carried out after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. After the census is over, the delimitation of the constituencies will be carried out on the basis of the coming census. During the delimitation, the concerns of the Southern states will be taken care of," the functionary said.

The Southern states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana -- have been able to check their population growth through various family planning measures.

Several leaders from south Indian states have expressed concern that due to the huge population of North India, they will get more seats and states who controlled population would lose out with under-representation.

'We understands concerns of the Southern states and will try to develop a mechanism that they continue to get a proportionate representation. They will not suffer,' the functionary said.

The debate around delimitation began after the women's reservation bill was passed by parliament. The quota for the women can only be implemented after census and delimitation are completed.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had raised concerns about delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, calling it 'Damocles Sword' hanging over the state.

Stalin also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allay fears of the Southern states.

K T Rama Rao, working president of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, which ruled Telangana for 10 years, had said it was time for all the political parties in the South, cutting across affiliations, to raise their voice against the 'injustice' being done through the process of delimitation of Lok Sabha seats after 2026.