Another ally, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, has recently voiced his support for a caste-based census. Other NDA allies, including the Republican Party of India (RPI) and Apna Dal, have advocated for the caste census in Parliament. In earlier interviews with TNIE, RPI chief and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale emphasised his party’s commitment to pushing for a nationwide caste census and pledged to press the Centre on the matter.The Congress has also strongly backed a caste-based census in recent elections. For senior leader Rahul Gandhi, conducting a nationwide socio-economic caste census has been a central campaign promise, both in the general election and upcoming assembly elections.Following the reports of the population census, Congress MP Manickam Tagore described the government’s refusal to conduct such a census as a betrayal of OBC communities.“Modi’s refusal to conduct a caste census is a clear betrayal of OBC communities. By ignoring the voices demanding justice, he’s denying our people their due representation—all because of political arrogance. Will the RSS, JD(U), and TDP stand with the people or remain silent?” he wrote on X.While reports suggest that the government will begin the delimitation exercise of Lok Sabha seats after the completion of the Census exercise, the issue will raise the hackles of Southern states. A political row broke out recently after AP CM Naidu and Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin advocated for people in their states to have more children.Several Opposition parties from southern states have raised concerns that the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats based on the population may lead to the states losing out in representation as they successfully controlled the population through population control programs.According to a research paper for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, published ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Northern states may gain more than 32 seats while Southern states may lose 24 seats. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh alone would gain 21 seats, according to the projection. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala taken together will lose 16 seats, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana together may lose 8 seats. The current strength of the Lok Sabha, 543, is based on the 1971 Census. After that, the delimitation exercise was not been done as the 42nd amendment to the Constitution mandated a freeze in delimitation exercise for 25 years until 2001, which was extended by another 25 years till 2026. Under Article 82 of the Constitution, only the Census data after 2026 can be used for the delimitation exercise.
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