Congress to have internal committee to formulate position on delimitation

K.C. Venugopal said the Congress will constitute an internal committee to formulate its position on the intended delimitation exercise. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Congress will constitute an internal committee to formulate its position on the intended delimitation exercise, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal told The Hindu.

“There are many complexities involved in the delimitation exercise and we, as a national party, have to take a multi-dimensional view on the subject, taking into account all aspects and concerns,” Mr. Venugopal said.

He added that the fears that delimitation would diminish the representation of a few States in the Parliament had been around, but the government had not yet clarified its position. “It is necessary that the government comes out with a detailed statement on the issue to clear all doubts, rumours and speculations on the issue,” Mr. Venugopal said.

So far, the Congress has articulated its opposition to using population as the only parameter for the delimitation exercise, saying that not only south Indian States, many States in north India would also suffer. The party, however, wanted to take a more nuanced position than their allies, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), on the subject, sources said, keeping in mind its already precarious position in the Hindi belt States, which are expected to gain from the delimitation exercise.

Nevertheless, the Congress’s Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Karnataka Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar attended the Joint Action Committee organised by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

On Saturday (March 22, 2025), speaking on the issue, the Congress’s general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh pointed out that the exercise could not be undertaken without conducting a fresh Census.

The 2002 Constitutional amendment has postponed delimitation until 2026.

“Delimitation cannot be done without a fresh Census. Atal Bihari Vajpayee amended the Constitution to say that the delimitation will be postponed till we complete the first Census after 2026, which means 2031. That was his constitutional amendment in 2002. So, delimitation was kept frozen at 1971 population levels,” Mr. Ramesh said. No State, he said, should be penalised for reducing fertility rates and family size.

On March 6, in a detailed post on the issue, senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari had said that many north Indian States would also lose representation in proportion to the total strength of the Lok Sabha. “For example, the number of Lok Sabha seats of both Punjab and Haryana post-delimitation would be 18, [whereas] currently Punjab has 13 [Lok Sabha seats] and Haryana 10. However, as a proportion to the overall strength of the Lok Sabha, both States would lose further,” Mr. Tewari had said.

Even within the northern States, how the distribution of seats would play out is still an open-ended question. The only States to gain from the exercise would be those in middle India, who have been laggards in population control measures.