'Have babies now': CM MK Stalin to couples in Tamil Nadu amid delimitation row

NEW DELHI: Amid war on delimitation and National Education Policy (NEP), Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Monday made an unusual appeal, urging state residents to have children 'immediately.'
Stalin said that population-based delimitation could affect TN's parliamentary seats and requested citizens to consider his appeal seriously, setting aside personal reservations.
The CM was attending wedding ceremony of Nagai district party secretary. "Earlier, we used to say, take your time and have a baby. But now the situation has changed, and we should say it now. We implemented family planning successfully, and now we are facing such a situation," Stalin said while addressing the gathering at the event.

The chief minister specifically addressed newly married couples, encouraging them to start families quickly to ensure adequate political representation post-delimitation. He acknowledged the state's successful family planning initiatives but expressed worry about their current implications.
Delimitation, a constitutional process in India, involves redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies to ensure equal population representation across electoral districts. This process determines how many representatives each state gets in Parliament based on population size.
The process is guided by specific constitutional provisions under Articles 82 and 170 of the Indian Constitution. Article 82 mandates that Parliament must enact a Delimitation Act after each national census to redefine Lok Sabha constituency boundaries and numbers. Article 170 establishes guidelines for State Legislative Assembly delimitation, determining seat allocation based on population data.
The primary purpose is to maintain fair representation by ensuring each constituency has approximately equal population numbers.
States with larger populations receive more parliamentary representatives compared to those with smaller populations, maintaining proportional representation in India's democratic system.
Stalin has called an all-party meeting for March 5 to discuss delimitation matters, inviting 40 Election Commission-registered political parties to address what he termed a "sword dangling over Tamil Nadu."
Stalin added, "They are trying to implement delimitation which will reduce the number of Lok Sabha seats to Tamil Nadu. I have convened an all-party meeting on March 5 to discuss our stand on delimitation. Forty registered with the Election Commission have been invited. A majority of them have said yes, a few are skipping it. But they should understand that this is not a problem of DMK, it is a problem for the entire state. So I urge everyone again to stand together for the welfare of this state and its rights."