Tamil Nadu Assembly urges Centre to retain Lok Sabha strength at 543

The Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a resolution urging the Centre to permanently retain the Lok Sabha strength at 543 and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in 2029 polls. The resolution also sought safeguards for states against adverse delimitation effects

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution moved by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, urging the Union government to permanently fix the strength of Lok Sabha members at 543.

The resolution, which batted for the implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in the next Lok Sabha polls to be held in 2029 and in elections to legislative assemblies, was passed after an intense debate that went on for about two hours.

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The CM said that 33 per cent reservation for women must not be delayed anymore and asserted that “reservation for women is not a concession, it is their democratic right”.

The government-sponsored resolution said that it is the Centre’s duty to ensure that no State that implemented population control programmes is adversely affected by the delimitation proposal.

Main opposition DMK, ruling TVK’s friendly parties — the CPI and CPI-M — supported the resolution.

Ex-chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said his party, the AIADMK, supported only the clause in the chief minister-moved resolution that demands reservation for women.

PMK, an NDA constituent, opposed the resolution and urged that it be withdrawn.

BJP’s lone member Bhojarajan said the Centre’s delimitation initiative was considering the welfare of future generations.

On August 8, a Vijay-led meeting of Tamil Nadu MPs belonging to the alliance and friendly parties decided to oppose in total the proposed delimitation exercise of the Union government.

The meeting was boycotted by the main opposition party, the DMK, and key Dravidian party, the AIADMK, which dubbed the deliberations a “farce” and a “hurriedly staged drama”, respectively.

In that meeting, the MPs had demanded that the ratio of seats between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must remain at 2.2:1.

It was unanimously decided to adopt a resolution in the State Assembly to permanently safeguard the rights of Tamil Nadu and the other south Indian states in this matter.