NEW DELHI: A day after Prime Minister Modi said that Southern states wouldn’t lose seats in the upcoming delimitation exercise, Congress whip in Lok Sabha and Tamil Nadu MP Manickam Tagore warned that the move could skew political representation and sideline key democratic processes.
The Centre’s apparent shift towards advancing delimitation could be a strategic move to sidestep demands for OBC representation in the women’s quota based on data from the proposed 2027 caste census, said Tagore.
Speaking exclusively to this paper, the Congress leader called for a broad consultation involving the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, parties, and other stakeholders to arrive at a fair framework to ensure equitable representation for all regions.
The Congress party has consistently backed women’s reservation and had, as early as 2023, urged the government to implement it immediately, he said. However, the government chose to tie the legislation to both delimitation and the census. “The government had earlier said the sequence would be census, delimitation, and women’s quota.
Now, they appear to be delinking the census, which raises serious questions. Because a caste-based census would provide clear data on the OBC population, it would lead to demands for fair representation of OBCs within the women’s quota. BJP’s hidden agenda is to deny the OBC women the right to have a reservation in Parliament. That’s why they advanced the delimitation,” he said.
Expressing concern over the proposed 50% increase in Lok Sabha seats, Tagore said the move could create an imbalance in representation, saying that while southern states may gain additional seats, their relative influence in Parliament could decline compared to northern states.
“It appears that the government is planning to increase the total number of seats in Parliament, possibly adding around 272 new seats to implement the women’s quota. While we support women’s reservation, the concern is about how these additional seats will be distributed. For example, Southern states together may get around 66 additional seats, while northern states could gain about 200 additional seats.
So the concern is not just about losing seats, but about losing proportional influence and representation in Parliament. Not only the South, the western part of India, and the north eastern part also are at a great disadvantage”, said the Congress leader.
Party slams special session timing on women’s bill
Tagore also criticised the timing of the special session of Parliament to pass the women’s bill, pointing out that it is being scheduled ahead of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu elections, potentially limiting the participation of the MPs from those seats. “The Business Advisory Committee was not informed about the special session. Why have Parliament and the Opposition not been kept in the loop?” he said.