VIJAYAWADA: YSRCP President and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who skipped the first Joint Action Committee meeting, shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 21, urging that the upcoming delimitation exercise be conducted without reducing any State’s representation in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.
In his three-page letter, Jagan stressed the need for caution, noting that the exercise could significantly impact political representation and stir deep sentiments among the country’s population. He expressed concern over the assumption that delimitation would be based on population, which has caused anxiety among southern states.
Jagan highlighted the imbalance stemming from varying outcomes of population control efforts across States. He pointed out that southern states have seen a decline in their share of the national population over the past 40 years, further reduced in the last 15 years due to their effective implementation of population control initiatives.
Jagan acknowledged the Union Home Minister’s assurance that delimitation would ensure proportionate seat increases for all states but flagged a constitutional impediment to such relaxation. He urged the Prime Minister to amend the Constitution to enable proportionate representation.