Delimitation grave injustice to southern states, BJP's conspiring to stay in power: Congress leader M Lakshmana

Mysuru: KPCC spokesman M Lakshmana alleged that the BJP-led NDA government’s proposed delimitation of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies would be a grave injustice to the Southern states, as the people of these states have strictly adhered to population control, while contributing to 40% of the nation’s GDP.

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Addressing a media conference in Mysuru on Friday, Lakshmana said even if the present number of seats increase by 50% after delimitation, all the six southern states will get only a total of 136 seats while Uttar Pradesh alone will get 142 seats. “The BJP is conspiring to be permanently in power at the Centre, by maintaining around four Hindi-heartland states,” he said.

Women’s quota

Lakshmana said the Congress is not opposing the Women's Reservation Bill (Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam), but the delimitation.

“If the Women’s Bill alone is presented before the Parliament, the Congress would pass it as it is its baby, first introduced by the Congress-led UPA government in 1996,” he said.

Pointing out that the Southern states alone contribute Rs 7 lakh crore (Karnataka’s share of Rs 1.6 lakh crore) to the total GST collection of the nation of Rs 22 lakh crore, Lakshmana said.

Karnataka alone contributes Rs 5 lakh crore to the total national tax collection of Rs 48 lakh crore but gets back only Rs 60,000 crore, he added.

"But Uttar Pradesh, which contributes just Rs 2.25 lakh crore, gets back Rs 6 lakh crore,” he said.

MNGT shifting row

Lakshmana said, it is unfortunate that MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar is supporting the shifting out of the Railway Mysuru New Goods Terminal (MNGT), established by his own ancestor Chamarajendra Wadiyar in 1882.

"The proposal had come up to shift MNGT to Yeliyur in 2024 itself and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote a letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to stall it. Now, again, State Minister for Railways V Somanna and Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy are targeting the MNGT. They are planning to shift it to either Yeliyur or Pandavapura in Mandya district,” he said.

Lakshmana said the workers dependent on the MNGT for a livelihood will stage a protest, by laying a siege to the Mysuru Railway Station for an entire day to oppose the shifting out. “The MNGT earned a revenue of Rs 4,990 crore, while the revenue from passengers was just Rs 450 crore in 2025-26. Over 600 trucks do loading and unloading in the terminal every day and over 10,000 workers are dependent on MNGT,” he said.

Tobacco problem

Lakshmana said, the Central government is not taking any step to solve the problems of tobacco growers of the Mysuru region. “The Union Ministers and MP issued statements that the companies will give a fair price to the farmers. But, the price dropped gradually since then. At present the farmers are getting just Rs 140 per kg, while the production cost itself is Rs 260 per kg. The farmers have been protesting since several days, but the authorities concerned have turned a blind eye to their problems,” he said.

SIR row

Lakshmana said, SIR is a scam by the BJP to win elections by unfair means. “According to the officials, SIR has done the preliminary exercise of mapping in Karnataka, even though official statements are not issued. “The officials could not map 15% of the present voters. This means that 90 lakh voters could be excluded from the voters list. I myself faced a problem as we had changed the house multiple times over the past couple of decades. Besides, a slight change in the spelling of my name was a problem. There are a lot of problems in the spelling of names of Muslims, which might lead to their exclusion. So, the Congress will oppose SIR in Karnataka, like in neighbouring states,” he said.