‘States with successful family planning to lose seats’

New Delhi: Amid the delimitation row, the Congress on Tuesday said that the exercise will “penalise” states that have successfully implemented family planning and reduced total fertility rates.

In a lengthy post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh highlighted nine states may lose anywhere between one to eight Lok Sabha seats each, while states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are going to gain 11 and 10 seats, respectively, if the delimitation exercise is undertaken.

“The states that lose seats are Tamil Nadu (8), Kerala (8), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (8), Odisha (3), West Bengal (4), Karnataka (2), Himachal Pradesh (1), Punjab (1), and Uttarakhand (1). Assam, J&K, and Maharashtra don’t lose or gain any seat,” he said.

“The states that gain are Uttar Pradesh (11), Bihar (10), Rajasthan (6), Madhya Pradesh (4), Jharkhand (1), Haryana (1), Gujarat (1), Delhi (1), and Chhattisgarh (1),” Ramesh pointed out.

To back his claim, he cited an analysis by two scholars, Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson, in March 2019 using data from the 2001 and 2011 Census.