BJP may not create massive majority for Hindi belt: Tharoor on delimitation

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said the ruling BJP, which faced a Lok Sabha poll drubbing in Uttar Pradesh, may not think of creating a "massive majority for the Hindi belt" in the delimitation exercise scheduled to take place after 2026.

Speaking at the launch of author Radha Kumar's "The Republic Relearnt: Renewing Indian Democracy (1947-2024)" on Monday, Tharoor said there are vast areas of concerns when it comes to the delimitation exercise, ranging from federalism to maintaining of balance within the states.

"This (delimitation) is a subject that I hope will benefit from common sense and wisdom of those in power, who can certainly create a huge mess if they think in short term political gains. But now that UP has taught them that there can be pushback from the Hindi belt...they (the BJP) might not be that enthusiastic about creating a massive majority for the Hindi belt in their own interest," said Tharoor.

Delimitation, which means the process of fixing the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each state for the Lok Sabha and Legislative assemblies, is to be carried out on the basis of the first Census after 2026.

The BJP won only 33 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP in the recently held parliamentary elections.

The four-time Thiruvananthapuram MP warned the Union government against making population the sole delimitation criterion for undertaking the exercise, as that would cause disfranchisement in the South.

He also warned that the government yielding to the temptation of using demographic numbers to give the Hindi belt a two-thirds majority could play "dangerous trails" on the unity of the country.

"There are some states in the South that will feel disenfranchised if it becomes possible to amend the Constitution without any reference to them. For example, if it is technically possible to pass an amendment that makes Hindi the national language... I think that you'll have a serious revolt in Tamil Nadu," he added.

Author Kumar, too, talking on the issue, suggested for equal number of seats for all states in the Rajya Sabha, like the US, to make sure that the demographic majority in the Lok Sabha doesn't control the evolution of the polity.

The 71-year-old even asked Tharoor to convince his party to put up the important subject of delimitation in the public domain for discussion.

"If your party were to come out with proposals and put them up for discussions and say, 'We would like inputs from people all over the country within the period of six- nine months', that would really help. It would make a huge difference and impact," she added.

In "The Republic Relearnt", published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI), Kumar challenges the commonly held belief that Indian democracy has enjoyed an uninterrupted trajectory since Independence, punctuating the narrative with insightful analyses of historical disruptions and threats to democratic institutions.

The book, priced at Rs 686, is currently available for purchase across online and offline stores.