BJP: Stalin burned Delimitation Bill copy for election gains

Hyderabad: Taking exception to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin burning a copy of the delimitation bill, Telangana BJP leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy has alleged that the protests by DMK were orchestrated with an eye on the Assembly elections next week.

In a statement in Hyderabad, Reddy, a former vice chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said an all-party meeting, led by Stalin last year in Chennai, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give an assurance in the Parliament that the 1971 census -based Lok Sabha seat allocation would be extended beyond 2026.

“The present proposal is not to disturb the distribution of Lok Sabha seats on the 1971 basis but to add 50 per cent seats for all the states to factor in Women’s Reservation, which has been elusive for several decades because of the lack of political will, especially by the previous Congress-led UPA,” he said on Thursday.

To call the delimitation a plot against the southern states is a politically motivated move, he said.

Reddy said, as a proud South Indian, he is happy to welcome the proposal of the Centre to maintain the allotted numbers of Lok Sabha seats unchanged and add 50 per cent of seats across all states to take care of the long-overdue 33 per cent reservation for women.

Shashidhar Reddy, son of former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, M Chenna Reddy, thanked PM Modi for the statesmanship demonstrated by him.