KRISHNAGIRI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Congress-DMK combine for their role in defeating the women's reservation bill in Parliament and warned that southern states will suffer "significant losses" in terms of representation without the proposed Delimitation Bill.
Campaigning in Tamil Nadu ahead of the Assembly elections, Naidu met industrialists and NDA candidates in the city and urged voters to back an AIADMK-led government. Addressing the media on the sidelines, he recalled the repeated opposition the women's reservation bill has faced from Congress and its allies, especially the DMK, since 1996. Naidu also criticised the DMK’s position, questioning why it opposed a proposal that could potentially expand legislative seats significantly.
"The centre’s approach of combining a proposed 50% increase in parliamentary seats with 33% reservation for women would ensure that no state loses representation in Parliament. South India currently has 130 seats. It could go up to 195 seats. This way, everyone gains,” Naidu said, adding that what Congress, DMK and other political parties have done was an injustice to the women.
He further stated that he had personally raised concerns with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on safeguarding South India’s proportional share, and maintained that implementing women’s reservation without delimitation would be inadequate. He exhorted that the southern states will lose immensely if delimitation is executed under the 2027 census.
The Andhra Pradesh CM also touched upon inter-state water sharing, reiterating his support for Tamil Nadu. He said Andhra Pradesh was actively promoting intra-linking of rivers and pointed to the Telugu Ganga Project as an example of cooperation.
“Once completed, we can also contribute some water to the Cauvery. The ultimate solution is interlinking rivers from Ganga to Cauvery,” he said. Claiming that there has been no development in Tamil Nadu in the last five years, Naidu said the DMK government has failed to recognise the importance of infrastructure like airports. Promoting welfare without development is unsustainable, he added.
"Madras was once the headquarters of South India and known as a progressive state, but now it is losing its glory due to scandals and lack of governance and scandals."
Speaking after campaigning for Thalli BJP candidate Dr C Nagesh Kumar and Hosur AIADMK candidate P Balakrishna Reddy at Denkanikottai, Naidu said, "People should vote for the NDA to develop Tamil Nadu. For a state to be developed, the state and the centre should be part of the same political alliance.
In the past 22 months, Andhra Pradesh developed, Amaravati was made the capital, steps were taken for Polavaram irrigation project, two airports were built in Amaravati and Vishakapatnam. However, Tamil Nadu, which was once a developed state, is lagging behind and Chennai is struggling to compete with Bengaluru and Hyderabad."