Southern states are punished for achieving targets, say Kerala CM and Karnataka Deputy CM

Kerala CM criticizes BJP government for unfair delimitation process, accusing them of punishing southern states for population control success.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the attitude of the BJP-led Union government towards southern States seems to be on the lines of “now you have a smaller population and you deserve less funds and less representation”.

Addressing the first Joint Action Committee meeting on Fair Delimitation, he said the BJP government was going ahead with the delimitation process without any consultation, and the sudden move was not driven by any constitutional consequence or democratic imperative, but for very narrow political gains.

“If the delimitation is taken up after the Census it will lead to a large increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats in the northern States while there will be significant reduction of representation of southern States in Parliament. This will suit the BJP as they hold greater influence in the North,” he added.

Mr. Vijayan said if delimitation was carried out purely on the basis of population, Kerala and southern states would suffer.

“Our States are now set to be punished for our sincere implementation of the national population policy of 1976. When a State faithfully implements nationally recognised policy, it deserves special consideration for that very reason. Not only is this consideration being denied, but we are being penalised for fulfilling our duty for the nation. This is the crux of the current issue,” he said.

Mr. Vijayan said the national population policy was not intended for specific regions of the country, but was declared as a policy for the entire nation. “Many States, however, failed to implement it effectively. Some States, on the other hand, have implemented it commendably. The Union government has praised us time and again for our achievements, yet the same government is now punishing us for having achieved the target and going beyond it,” he said.

D.K. Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, said the proposed delimitation exercise, based solely on population, was not just a technical adjustment, but a political assault on the Southern states.