The Hindu nationalist prime minister\u2019s push could shift power northward to his political advantage but risks escalating political tensions<\/p>\n
When Narendra Modi\u2019s alliance won a narrow majority<\/a> in last year\u2019s Indian election, it signalled his waning popularity<\/a> after a decade in power. A victory in 2029 may seem unlikely. Yet his government\u2019s push to redraw parliamentary constituencies using post-2026 census data could tilt the electoral field in his favour.<\/p>\n The process, known as delimitation<\/a>, ensures each member of parliament represents an equal number of voters \u2013 a principle of democratic fairness. Since 1976, however, it has been frozen to avoid penalising Indian states that curbed population growth. If delimitation proceeds, Mr Modi\u2019s populous northern strongholds will gain seats, weakening the political clout of India\u2019s economically<\/a> dynamic and culturally distinct southern cone. Its five states are governed by different parties but, critically, none belong to Modi\u2019s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Southern states have long accused Mr Modi\u2019s government of bias in federal funding and project approvals. Last week\u2019s gathering of the south\u2019s political leadership in Delhi to protest<\/a> against his move underscores the risk of backlash.<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Hindu nationalist prime minister\u2019s push could shift power northward to his political advantage but risks escalating political tensions When Narendra Modi\u2019s alliance won a narrow majority in last year\u2019s Indian election, it signalled his waning popularity after a decade in power. A victory in 2029 may seem unlikely. Yet his government\u2019s push to redraw … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}