BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) has raised concerns about the proposed delimitation of constituencies, which he believes will be unfair to southern states. He warned that the Central Government’s plan to redraw constituencies based on population would negatively impact Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala. KTR supported Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s concerns on this issue.
KTR questioned the intentions of the Modi government, asking if the Centre was trying to punish southern states for successfully controlling their population. He criticised the move, stating that basing constituencies only on population size, without considering the efforts of states in population control, goes against the principles of democracy and federalism.
He highlighted that southern states have made significant contributions to nation-building. In 1951, these states made up 26.2% of India’s population, but this share has dropped to 19.8% by 2022. Meanwhile, northern states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan saw their population share increase from 39.1% to 43.2%.
KTR explained that if Lok Sabha seats were allocated based on the latest census, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar together would have 222 seats, while the five southern states would have only 165 seats. He argued that this would be unfair, as southern states have performed better in areas like economic growth, human development, and population control.
He criticised the idea of penalising states that have done well and rewarding those that have lagged behind. Instead, he suggested that constituency delimitation should be based on economic contribution rather than just population. He pointed out that Telangana, though it has only 2.8% of India’s population, contributes over 5.2% to the country’s GDP. He urged that the economic contributions of southern states should be considered in the delimitation process.
