Joint Statement on Delimitation 2026: Oppose Nefarious Design of Fascist Forces

Joint Statement on Delimitation 2026: Oppose Nefarious Design of Fascist Forces

In the name of implementing 33% reservation for women in parliament and in state assemblies, fascist RSS-BJP introduced a bill on delimitation 2026 which fell in Lok Sabha as RSS-BJP led NDA could not muster two thirds majority. This was a deception to camouflage their real intention of increasing seats in Lok Sabha from states where they are stronger. Manuwadi RSS-BJP is not at all serious about women’s reservation. In reality, the bill on 33% reservation for women (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) has already been enacted to be 106th constitutional amendment in September 2023. At that time, it was this same BJP that has laid out criteria that the Act can be implemented based on a nationwide census which is projected to have an impact on the following Lok Sabha elections in 2034.

Though aware that this Constitution Amendment will fail, RSS-BJP went ahead with presentation and voting on the Bill to propagate that opposition parties are anti-women. Timing of the Special Session when elections to big states like West Bengal and Tamilnadu are to be held shortly, expose their design.

Although the Constitution mandates that electoral constituencies be delimited to ensure proportional representation based on population, the Indira Gandhi government amended both the Constitution and the Delimitation Act in 1976 to freeze the delimitation process for a period of 25 years—until 2001. This decision was based on the premise that such redrawing of boundaries should be undertaken only after population growth had been brought under control and a demographic equilibrium achieved. However, by 2001, population growth remained unchecked in several states. Consequently, the Union government of the time, led by BJP’s Vajpayee, enacted the 84th Amendment to the Constitution, thereby extending the freeze on the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies until the year 2026.

The very reason why constituency delimitation was kept in abeyance for 54 years was to allow for the nationwide implementation of family planning programs, thereby controlling population growth and establishing a demographic equilibrium within Parliament. In South Indian states including Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh as well as in states like Punjab, Odisha, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, where family planning initiatives were implemented rigorously and systematically, there population growth declined significantly and was brought under control. Conversely, in the northern states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan where these measures were not implemented effectively, the population has witnessed a big growth. Given that a demographic equilibrium between the states of different regions e.g. states in South India and North India remains unachieved to this day, the objective behind the RSS-BJP clique’s drive on constituency delimitation is to preserve and perpetuate their power, which have become virtually defunct in the aforementioned southern states, by increasing the number of parliamentary constituencies in the demographically burgeoning northern states.

Since the delimitation of constituencies is mandated to take place only after the census conducted subsequent to the year 2026, Modi government has conspiratorially delayed the census, originally scheduled for 2021, until 2026 citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the pretext though enough time has passed since the pandemic. Had the census been conducted in 2021 or even a year or two later, this agenda would have been postponed to after 2031 Census when it would have brought an assessment of the implementation of family planning programs in states with high population densities. In fact leaders of fascist RSS-BJP have been calling for higher population growth allegedly in response to demographic growth of Muslims. Were such measures implemented, the population in the northern states would decline; consequently, during the subsequent constituency delimitation, the representation of these northern states would fall below the levels envisioned by the BJP. Under these circumstances, if the census is eventually conducted in 2026 and parliamentary constituencies are subsequently re-delimited based on those figures, the representation of states that adhered to the Union government’s policies to control population growth will diminish, while the representation of states that allowed their populations to increase will expand.

In fact, RSS-BJP design to increase representation from the states where their Hindutva has stronger base but this suffered a setback due to their failure to get a majority in 2024 elections. Hence for the purpose of this design they brought forward Women’s Reservation though they had themselves has envisaged this for elections in 2034.

Read

♦ தோல்வியடைந்த தொகுதி மறு வரையறை மசோதாவும், அமித்ஷாவின் பொய்களும்!

♦ பாசிச மோடி அரசின் கீழ் நாடாளுமன்றத் தொகுதி மறுவரையறை: நாட்டிற்கே ஆபத்து!

The Resistance of the governments and people of the southern states to RSS-BJP’s Hindutva has been a thorn in their ‘throne’ continuously. Consequently, the fascist BJP finds it difficult to implement any anti-people laws or scheme. It is precisely for this reason that the fascist BJP seeks to permanently retain the power to enact any fascist legislation, even without the participation of South India, by increasing parliamentary representation in the northern states. To this end, it has planned the process of delimiting parliamentary constituencies. It is with this specific objective in mind that it had recently constructed a new Parliament building with a seating capacity of 850.

BJP resorts to maligning those who are opposing its constituency delimitation proposal with full cognizant of these facts by labeling them as anti-women. The BJP asserts that the number of constituencies in the South Indian states will not decrease as a result of this delimitation exercise. However this is a blatant lie. The number of seats from South Indian states will come down either absolutely or proportionally is delimitation exercise is done on the basis of current population data. If constituencies are merely redrawn based on population without increasing the total number of seats, the current count of 129 constituencies across the southern states will drop to 103. Conversely, in the northern states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan, the number of constituencies will rise from 145 to 159. On the other hand, if a census is conducted in 2026 and a delimitation exercise is carried out based on its findings increasing number of seats, South Indian states would gain an additional 35 constituencies. However, the four states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan alone would gain an additional 150 constituencies. Whichever of these two approaches is adopted, the collective voice and influence of South Indian states in Parliament will decline. Furthermore, the delimitation exercise proposed by the BJP carries the danger of being a calculated move to systematically eliminate constituencies currently favourable to opposition parties. Consequently, the balance of parliamentary representation would be disrupted which runs counter to the principles of federalism. It paves the way for oppression of various nationalities and deprivation of states’ rights.

We are witnessing in practice that the RSS-BJP fascist clique – which is rapidly working towards establishing a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ – is prepared to go to any extent to permanently entrench its fascist power through the redrawing of parliamentary constituencies.

Therefore, CPI (ML)-New Democracy and People’s Power jointly condemn the attempts by fascists to perpetuate their political power through deceptive rhetoric regarding women’s reservation and constituency delimitation. We call upon all political parties including revolutionary, progressive, democratic, left and Ambedkarite organizations as well as the all sections of working people, to rise up and fight against this conspiracy orchestrated by ruling fascist forces.

Comredly,
Peoples power.
&
CPIML (New Democracy)