‘Southern states would’ve got more Lok Sabha seats than 2011 projections’: Anurag Thakur

Bengaluru: Former union minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday criticised the I.N.D.I.A. bloc for defeating the 131st Constitutional amendment bill, saying that it stalled women’s reservation. 

Addressing a news conference, the BJP leader accused the Congress, DMK, TMC and SP of putting up a “false narrative” that delimitation would punish and hurt southern states. 

Thakur claimed that the Modi government intended to propose a 50 per cent increase for each state as per which he claimed all south Indian states would have gained more seats than the 2011 projections. He claimed that the proportion of seats held by south India would have continued as it is.

Thakur slammed the then Indira Gandhi government’s decision through the 42nd Constitutional amendment in 1976 to freeze the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to a maximum of 550 for 25 years, based on the 1971 census figures.

He accused the Congress of “stopping” 4 attempts by the Vajpayee government between 1998 and 2003, to provide political reservation to women.

Referring to the bill piloted by the then ruling Congress to provide women’s reservation in Rajya Sabha in 2010, Thakur wondered why the bill, passed with big numbers in the Upper House, wasn’t passed in the Lok Sabha.