CPI(M) urges Centre to call all-party meeting on delimitation

Party General Secretary MA Baby said that southern states have apprehensions that they would lose representation in Lok Sabha following a delimitation.

New Delhi: CPI(M) on Friday asked the Modi government to immediately call an all-party meeting on delimitation, as its announcement of schedule for Census 2027 has led to apprehensions about the "intentions" behind the exercise.

After a three-day meeting of the party's Central Committee that ended on Thursday, CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby said that southern states have apprehensions that they would lose representation in Lok Sabha following a delimitation.

"The union government, after deliberate and inordinate delay, was finally forced to announce that it will conduct the general census in 2027 and along with it, the caste census. Various apprehensions are being expressed about the intentions of the government about the modalities it intends to follow. The government should immediately convene an all party meeting and discuss these issues," he told a press conference.

According to the Constitution, an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats as per population has been frozen till 2026 and the next delimitation should be based on a Census after 2026. The Ministry of Home Affair on Thursday said Home Minister Amit Shah has already made it clear that concerns of the southern states will be taken care of and discussions will be held at appropriate time.

Baby also said the CPI(M) will hold a week-long campaign in June against terrorism, war mongering and efforts to spread communal hatred, using the Pahalgam terrorist attack. He will also lead a delegation of Lok Sabha MPs Amra Ram, K Radhakrishnan and Su Venkatesan and Rajya Sabha MPs John Brittas, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and AA Rahim

The Central Committee also decided to hold programmes "in defence of democracy and expose the authoritarianism of the present government on the occasion of 50 years of the declaration of Emergency". Baby said, "this occasion will be used to expose the dubious role of the RSS during Emergency."

On upcoming Bihar elections, Baby said the CPI(M) has started consultations with all the Left and secular opposition parties in Bihar to jointly work for the defeat of the BJP and its allies.

On the Pahalgam terror attack, Baby said, "there are many serious questions that warrant an immediate answer from the government. The government has been boasting about how the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had returned to normal after the abrogation of Article 370, the special status and dismantling of the State of J&K. Such a flawed approach has led to serious security lapses. The perpetrators of the terrorist attacks, who have been identified, have still not been apprehended."

Raising questions about the ceasefire announcement on May 10, he said there has been no effective rebuttal of US President Donald Trump's assertion that he mediated the ceasefire.

Condemning the government’s refusal to convene a special session of Parliament, he said the Prime Minister, instead, has gone around the country in an attempt to drum up jingoism and gain political mileage.

"The government had declared that the operation was successful and that it had achieved its objectives. But the Prime Minister, in all his speeches, states that the operation has only been paused and not ended. By this, he intends to use this operation for his party’s political project," he added.