Hyderabad: Making it clear that Telangana would vehemently oppose the Union government’s plans to perform the delimitation exercise of Lok Sabha segments, chief minister A Revanth Reddy said that it needed to be done by taking ‘state’ as a unit, without increasing the Lok Sabha seats.

CM Revanth suggested an increase in the political representation of southern states from 24 percent to 33 percent. Currently, South India represents 130 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 543 seats.

During the all-party meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin in Chennai on Saturday, March 23, CM Revanth announced that the Telangana Assembly would soon pass a resolution opposing the delimitation exercise. He also stated that other southern states and Punjab have been urged to do the same.

Revanth added that a meeting with leaders from these states will be held in Hyderabad to strategize and advance their opposition to the Centre’s delimitation proposal.

He spoke on how former late prime ministers of India – Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee – dealt with the delimitation issue. “In 1976, when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister, delimitation was done without increasing the Lok Sabha seats. In 2001, during the late Vajpayee tenure the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies was done without increasing the Parliamentary seats. They took these decisions so that there is no imbalance of political power between Indian states,” he said.

Expressing serious concerns, he said that if the delimitation exercise is conducted, the BIMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) will end up dominating the country politically.

“There is a real danger of southern states losing its voice in the Indian Parliament. Hence, South India will never agree to any attempts by the Union government to perform delimitation exercise based solely on population data or using the pro-rata formula,” he said.

CM Revanth pointed out that the pro-rata formula alters the power balance, emphasizing that the central government can be decided by a single seat. “We have seen a government fall due to just one vote, and implementing the pro-rata formula could politically disadvantage us,” he noted.

He suggested that Lok Sabha seat delimitation should be postponed for the next 25 years. Instead, he proposed adjusting constituency boundaries based on population growth in cities and villages.

The Telangana chief minister accused the Centre of step-motherly treatment towards the southern states by not allocating funds fairly. He alleged that Telangana received Rs 0.42 from Rs 1 by paying taxes to the Union government whereas Bihar and Uttar Pradesh received Rs 6.06 and Rs 2.03 respectively. “It is time for the Centre to end these discriminative practices against the southern states and Punjab. It is time for the Centre to repay and reward us for our role and contribution to nation-building over the last 50 years,” he said.

He also demanded that the number of seats reserved for SCs and STs should be increased in states, and 33 percent reservations be given to women in the states.