"Have 16 Children": MK Stalin On Delimitation, Tamil Nadu's Lok Sabha Share
NDTV
Tamil Nadu's Lok Sabha share will likely only inch up - from 39 to 41, a five per cent increase, a possibility that has not been received well by the southern state.
"Have 16 children" - Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's eyebrow-raising 'solution' Monday to the possibility the southern state will be allotted fewer Lok Sabha seats - and therefore be less important to any political party looking to form the union government - after the delimitation in 2026, i.e., redrawing of parliamentary constituencies, before the 2029 election, based on revised population levels.
The DMK leader - presiding over the state-funded Hindu marriage ceremony of 31 couples - said the tradition in his state was for family elders to bless married couples with "16 kinds of wealth"; the benediction, translated from Tamil, reads "Acquire 16 kinds of wealth and lead a prosperous life)".
"That blessing does not mean you should have 16 children... but now a situation has arisen where people think they may have to, literally, raise 16 children and not a small and prosperous family."
