‘One Party Trying To Remain In Power’: Telangana Passes Resolution Against Delimitation; CM Revanth Reddy Says…

The southern states are uniting against the delimitation and the protest is picking pace after the meeting of the Joint Action Committee called by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin. Following the footsteps of Tamil Nadu, the Telangana assembly has passed a resolution against the delimitation process while urging the Centre not to take steps detrimental to the legitimate rights of the people.

Sharing the info on X, Telangana Chief Minister Revenath Reddy said, “As the leader of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, we passed a resolution today asking the Centre not to take any steps that compromise the political self-respect & legitimate rights of our people. People of Telangana & citizens of all other states of South India, are united to protect our rights and not to allow any discriminatory & biased Delimitation to be conducted which would seriously impale the economically highest productive states of the country.”

Reacting to the resolution, Reddy said that the fight will continue. “We will fight against all attempts to take away our rights. The first battle was won today. The war ahead is long but we will eventually prevail,” he said. 

Reddy said that the threat of a decline in the representation of the South to 19 per cent from 24 per cent is not ruled out if the delimitation was carried out by taking the population as the main criterion.

The resolution urged the Centre to carry out delimitation only after consultations with all the state governments and all political parties. CM Reddy alleged that one party was trying to remain in power at the Centre by increasing the number of seats in North India.

He recalled that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had observed that the delimitation on a population basis would ruin friendly and cordial relations between the states. He said a fresh debate on the delimitation of constituencies on a population basis has started creating apprehensions among Southern states.

The resolution also urged the Centre to increase the number of seats in the Telangana Assembly from 119 to 153.

“Further, the House resolves that in order to strengthen the representative democracy, the number of seats in the state Assembly should be immediately increased from 119 to 153 pursuant to the A.P Reorganization Act, 2014 and as per the latest census. This House urges the Union Government to introduce necessary Constitutional amendments for this purpose,” the resolution read.

The Chief Minister alleged that the Union government was discriminating against the state. He said the Centre amended the Constitution and increased the number of Assembly constituencies from 83 to 90 as per the 2011 census in Jammu and Kashmir. In Sikkim, a resolution was passed in the Cabinet in 2018 and the process of delimitation of constituencies is currently underway.