Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Sunday said that the state was facing a possible decrease in parliamentary seats because it implemented the family planning programme.
At a wedding of a senior party functionary in Kolathur, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief said,”Because we properly followed that continuously, there is a situation of reducing the number of Parliamentary seats as part of the delimitation exercise.”
Tamil Nadu, which has 39 Lok Sabha seats, has been opposed to any reduction in their numbers following delimitation. The state will witness assembly elections in 2026.
‘Have more children’: Stalin in 2024
In October last year, Stalin had asked people in his state to have more children, expressing concern about the delimitation exercise.
“These days, we don’t wish anyone that they should be blessed with 16 kinds of wealth in life. We only bless people to live happily with a small family. But when we are faced with situations like a reduction in the number of Parliament seats, we are made to think why should we have small families?” he had said.
In 2023, Stalin called the impending delimitation a “Damocles Sword”, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allay the fear among southern states that the exercise would slash their representation in Parliament.
“It is unjust that southern states, which have diligently followed the Union government’s policies to control population growth, may face punitive measures during the constituency delimitation,” he had said.
“We will have to defeat the political conspiracy of increasing the number of MPs based on population and reducing the political representation of South India. The attempt to render injustice to a politically aware Tamil Nadu should be nipped in the bud,” the Tamil Nadu CM said.
“I urge the PM to provide assurance that southern states, particularly Tamil Nadu, will not experience a reduction in representation during the impending delimitation process based on population,” he added.