The demand by the DMK and YSRCP for the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s removal may hinder the Modi government’s renewed push to pass the constitutional amendment on delimitation linking women’s reservation. The ruling NDA, which had suffered a loss of face when the bill was defeated in April, was hoping that the two regional parties would support its efforts to secure the required two-thirds majority and enable the bill to be passed.
Under the government’s plan, Lok Sabha seats will increase to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to ‘operationalise’ the women’s quota law before the 2029 Parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the last published 2011 census. But the protests against the CEC and the demand for his removal have shaped the stand of the two Southern parties on supporting the government. Besides, Southern states were perceived to be ‘losers’ in terms of Parliamentary clout, as a result of the population-based delimitation process.
There were reports that the BJP had approached the DMK, which has 22 Lok Sabha MPs, for support on delimitation following the rupture of its ties with the Congress. The YSRCP, meanwhile, has backed several contentious government bills in the past, including the legislation on appointing election commissioners, despite remaining outside the NDA. But both parties have now strongly backed the demand to remove the CEC, though their positions on a fresh delimitation proposal remain unclear.
The developments come amid speculation that the government could convene a special sitting of Parliament soon to take up legislation on delimitation and women’s reservation. Sensing the possibility, Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress president, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking an all-party meeting on any revised proposals and cautioning against rushing through constitutional changes with far-reaching impact. Flagging the ‘unprecedented’ delay in proroguing the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Kharge said it has already been over two months since the Monsoon Session was adjourned sine die on 13 August.
In a scathing attack, Jagan Mohan Reddy, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and YSRCP chief, has now said that he regretted extending support to the law related to the appointment of CEC passed by Parliament in 2023. The party had backed the election commissioners’ appointment bill in 2023, which the Parliament passed after the suspension of more than 100 Opposition MPs.
Regretting the mistake
“Both the State Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioners should not be nominated by the ruling parties. In the past, we have supported the Union government’s mechanism to make appointments by the ruling party. But we regret it today. We regret committing that mistake, because an examiner cannot be appointed by a student,” he said.
The DMK, meanwhile, stepped up its campaign against Gyanesh Kumar at its Parliamentary party meeting, which was chaired by party president M.K. Stalin, and demanded his immediate removal and an inquiry into his decisions concerning the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The party said its MPs would submit a memorandum to the President, seeking to scrap SIR, return to ballot papers and fully count Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips. Alleging that the revision had excluded genuine voters, it accused the Election Commission of acting in a partisan manner.
Both the State Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioners should not be nominated by the ruling parties
It is obvious that the DMK’s rivalry with the ruling TVK is behind its new opposition to the BJP. While backing the ongoing youth and student protests over alleged electoral irregularities, the party has also accused the Congress and the TVK of political opportunism and double standards.
While the government failed to muster the required two-thirds majority to clear the bill on 17 April, sources said that there is a proposal to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50 per cent to address the concerns of Southern states. The draft is being readied to tackle the concerns of the Southern states, in mind that a population-based delimitation exercise would shrink their political power in the Lok Sabha.
Opposition parties – including the INDIA bloc and its Southern state representatives – had strongly opposed the bills in April. They argued that shifting seat allocations based on outdated or unadjusted census data would politically marginalise Southern states that successfully managed population growth, disrupting federal balance. The Tamil Nadu assembly had even passed a resolution against the delimitation bill, demanding that the current proportion of seat distribution among states remain unchanged to prevent Southern states that controlled population growth from losing political weight.