News Analysis India

Tag: Lok Sabha Seats

  • Uddhav Thackeray: Uddhav Thackeray tries to soothe frayed nerves as Congress fumes over Sanjay Raut’s remarks on Lok Sabha seats

    Amid a row over Sanjay Raut’s remarks that Shiv Sena (UBT) would contest 23 of the 48 seats in upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, party chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said he won’t do anything that would hurt the MVA alliance. His remarks are seen as a snub to Raut whose “23 seats for Shiv Sena” statement ruffled many feathers in Congress, an ally in the Maha Vikas Aghadi.

    Talking to reporters here, Thackeray said the ticket distribution will take place smoothly and that he has spoken to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi.

    A day before, Raut had caused a flutter saying Shiv Sena (UBT) would contest 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. He had also said the seat-sharing talks with Congress would have to “start from zero” as the latter had “not won any seat’” in the previous elections, a statement drawing a sharp response from state Congress leaders.

    “I will not do anything that will hurt the MVA. So I will not pay attention to those who say anything. Until the Congress president speaks on this issue (seat-sharing), till that time, neither I nor anyone from my side will comment,” Thackeray said.

    The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief also said the ticket distribution will take place smoothly. “The discussion between the Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) has been smooth,” he added. Thackeray also said efforts are on to have a joint meeting with MVA members- Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress, and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction)- and Prakash Amedbkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

    While Shiv Sena (UBT) and VBA have already forged an alliance, no call was yet taken on the induction of the Ambedkar-led outfit in the MVA fold and any electoral tie-up.

    In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Shiv Sena (Undivided) won 18 of the 23 seats it had contested in Maharashtra while its ally BJP bagged 23 of 25 constituencies. The NCP (undivided) emerged victorious on 4 seats while Congress’ tally was just one seat.

  • 1,000 seats in Lok Sabha? Congress speculates, BJP says no way

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Is the Centre planning to increase Lok Sabha seats to over 1,000 before 2024? A tweet by Congress MP Manish Tewari citing ‘credible inputs’ from BJP MPs caught a lot of eyeballs.

    While some BJP MPs denied having knowledge of this, leaders of other political parties said this has been doing the rounds for a while. They felt such a step should not be taken without wider public consultation.“I am reliably informed by Parliamentary colleagues in BJP that there is a proposal to increase the strength of Lok Sabha to 1,000 or more before 2024. New Parliament Chamber being constructed as a 1000 seater. Before this is done there should be a serious public consultation,” tweeted Tewari, a former Union Cabinet minister, early this week.

    Following this, party colleague and Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga, Karti Chidambaram called for a public debate. “A large country like ours needs more directly elected representatives. But if the increase is based on population, it will further diminish the representation of southern states, that will not be acceptable,” he tweeted.

    The Congress Data Analytics Department under Praveen Chakravarty has done some modelling based on how dynamics will change if seats are increased based on population. The modelling with projected increase in Lok Sabha seats to 1,200 from 543 shows southern states losing out, while higher population density states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh would register gains. Maharashtra and Gujarat also gain in numbers. Karnataka is the only southern state that will see an increase. The modelling shows that the share of total seats will go down in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha.

    D Raja, CPI general secretary, said this buzz about the Modi government increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats has been doing the rounds for some time, but questioned the criteria for such changes. “If it is planned to be done on the basis of population, southern states would suffer and this has happened in the past also,” said Raja.

    However, a Union minister dismissed Tewari’s claim and said he is indulging in speculation. “He may have been speculating in the context of the women’s reservation bill which is still pending. There is no proposal before the government as of now to increase the capacity of the Lok Sabha,” the minister said, requesting anonymity. Election Commission officials said they are not aware of this.