Actor Vijay warns against population-based delimitation impacting southern states

CHENNAI: Actor and TVK founder Vijay has said the delimitation exercise based on population will hurt the southern states by reducing their representation in Lok Sabha.
TVK's general secretary N Anand, who participated in the all-party meeting on delimitation, convened by chief minister M K Stalin at the secretariat on Wednesday, read out Vijay’s statement. The actor listed out several reasons for opposing delimitation based on population and said TVK would stand with Tamil Nadu political parties on the issue.
“In the last 50 years, Tamil Nadu and other southern states focused on the growth of their people by investing in education, health, and family planning. For them, delimitation based on population is a punishment,” Vijay said.
Citing the example of Uttar Pradesh, Vijay said, “Already a state with 80 MP seats garners huge political importance when compared to other states. It should not be further increased. It will not be acceptable if either the number of seats is reduced for Tamil Nadu or the northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar get more seats in the delimitation exercise.”
Raising doubts about the total number of seats in the new Parliament building, Vijay said, “By looking at 888 seats in the Lok Sabha, it seems that Union govt had long-term plans to increase the number of constituencies."
Recently, Union home minister Amit Shah, in a meeting in Coimbatore, said delimitation would be carried out on a pro-rata basis. Vijay said even if the proportion of MPs from each state is maintained in the delimitation exercise, it would not be a fruitful exercise.
Vijay said a shortage of MPs would not impact common citizens. “This is not a problem faced by an ordinary citizen. It is a democratic issue in principle and not a principal democratic issue,” Vijay said.