As the Narendra Modi government explores the possibility of bringing in a constitutional amendment Bill to carry out a fresh delimitation exercise, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has put down three conditions to support the Bill.
There is a freeze based on the 1971 amendment to the Constitution that ends after the 2027 Census. The DMK wants this freeze to remain for another 25 years while amending the Constitution to introduce a 50% blanket increase in the Lok Sabha seats for all States which was verbally promised by Home Minister Amit Shah when the legislative package aimed at bringing about delimitation was brought in Parliament in April.
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Additionally, they want a schedule of the number of seats that each State will have in the legislative package, as per sources in DMK. According to sources, the DMK has informally conveyed these conditions to the government.
Officially, the party continues to maintain that it will take a final call on supporting or not supporting the legislation only after the Bill is circulated.
