NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah on Thursday presented in Lok Sabha the expected share of five southern states following the proposed delimitation to assert that their strength wouldrise from the existing 23.76% to 23.89%.Calling the opposition’s claims on the Constitution amendment bill for women’s quota a “misleading narrative”, Shah said Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka would rise to 42 from 28, and from Andhra Pradesh to 38 from 25. He added that a similar 50% jump would take the tally to 26 from 17 in Telangana, to 59 from 39 in Tamil Nadu, and to 30 from 20 in Kerala.Overall, the southern states would have 195 constituencies in the proposed LS strength of 816 as against 129 in the current 543, Shah said soon after Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed govt’s move in her speech.Retorting to Congress MP K C Venugopal’s questioning who was saying this as the bill did not mention the figures, Shah said, “I, the home minister of India, am saying so as I am piloting the (delimitation) bill.” The minister said that on Friday, he would offer a detailed reply that was so simple that even a KG student would understand it.With most opposition speakers charging govt with planning to redraw boundaries of parliamentary seats for political benefit, he said delimitation would be done in accordance with the same law that was followed by various Congress govts.“You might have manipulated it but I can assure you that we will not do it,” Shah said, adding that all assembly elections till 2029 would follow the existing pattern.“Those who think we can manipulate the mandate of 130 crore people are overestimating our strength. If it could have been done, then we would never have won when you were in office. History shows that even Emergency could not manipulate popular mandate. Nobody has the strength to finish off democracy in the country. Those who tried were finished instead,” he said.
