Delimitation is a ticking political time bomb that will render South India less relevant to the country’s power politics whenever it explodes as the region stands to lose a significant number of the Lok Sabha seats if the delimitation exercise is done on the basis of fresh census.

Various studies have indicated that South India could see a fall in its Lok Sabha seats’ tally vis-a-vis the North. Hence, south Indian political leaders are scared of the prospects of losing out on electoral politics as a fallout of the delimitation.

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Calling it a punishment for their performance in the arena of population control, South Indian political leaders have indicated that they have initiated negotiations to collectively tackle the crisis arising from the proposed delimitation exercise, likely to be undertaken after the completion of census next year.

Now, the latest to join the issue is Congress leader and Karnataka Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah who echoed the sentiments expressed by his Tamil Nadu counterpart, an ally of the Congress, MK Stalin. The duo has taken on Union Home Minister Amit Shah dismissing his suggestions that the exercise won’t cause any disadvantage to the South.

In a statement on the issue, the Karnataka chief minister hinted that the leaders in South India could come together to prevent the injustice that might be caused to the region due to the delimitation process.

Siddarmaiah said on Thursday that a coordinated effort could be made in resolving the issue by all those affected by the delimitation. He said that the Union home minister’s statement could be the one crafted to create confusion among the southern states.

The Karnataka chief minister said if the delimitation takes place on the basis of the new census, his state could lose two seats while Kerala and Tamil Nadu could lose eight seats each as per the various studies carried out on the implications of the impending delimitation. Siddaramaiah also questioned the scenario where the number of seats in Uttar Pradesh were to increase from 80 to 91 and those in Bihar to rise from 40 to 50 and Madhya Pradesh gained four seats.

Taking serious exception to Siddaramaiah’s views on the delimitation, former Karnataka chief minister and BJP’s Lok Sabha MP Basavaraj Bommai said that the negative comments of Siddaramaiah are only an attempt to hide own shortcomings.

Accusing the chief minister of politicising the issue, the BJP leader said, “The process of delimitation necessitates two-thirds majority in Parliament; it cannot be executed hastily. There exists a constitutionally mandated committee for this task and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already assured Parliament that no state would be treated unfairly. Nevertheless, Siddaramaiah is looking for excuses to divert the attention from his failures and unjustly blame the Central government.”

“Politicising the issue is not in the best interests of the state,” he added.

However, Siddaramaiah maintained that “if southern states, including Karnataka, are to be treated fairly in the delimitation process, either the 1971 Census must be used as the basis, or the number of Lok Sabha seats should be increased proportionally, without relying solely on population figures”.

“Going by the Union home minister’s ambiguous remarks, it seems either he lacks proper information or there is an intent to disadvantage the southern states, including Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh,” Siddaramaiah added.

Such a case is just not acceptable, Siddaramaiah declared, echoing the sentiments expressed by Stalin who rejected the delimitation process as a concept in principle and put forward the argument of weakening federalism that could immensely benefit the states that have failed to control their population.

What the South Indian leaders fear the most is that the increased numbers in the Hindi heartland would irreversibly alter the geopolitical realities in the country to the extent that South India would lose pre-eminence as a political force.

This is the general perception among the people and politicians alike, but for the moment there are murmurs of protest in some sections of society. Siddaramaiah has called on all the people in the state to shun all their differences of caste, creed, and class and unite to fight against delimitation.

Incidentally, Stalin, who faces assembly elections in his state next year, has already flagged this issue in an emotional manner and would rally his party and masses on this issue and coupled with with the anti-Hindi stance, which also becomes a somewhat emotional issue in Tamil Nadu, it becomes a bigger challenge for the BJP to counter his narrative.