New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday stepped up its attack on the Modi government over the delimitation proposal to implement the women’s reservation law, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rejecting a proposal that will work more to the benefit of larger and more populous states as their already large numbers will further increase.In a post on Twitter, Jairam Ramesh, Congress’ general secretary in-charge of communications, said, “The Prime Minister is up to his usual tricks of making misleading statements meant to deceive.”Quoting the PM’s comment, the Congress leader said, ‘He (PM) says that if the strength of the Lok Sabha increases by 50% and the number of seats of each state in the Lok Sabha also increases by 50% then the South Indian states will not be harmed in any way. This is throwing dust in the eyes of the people of a country in which the Prime Minister has unparalleled expertise.”“For example, the difference between the seats of UP and Kerala in the Lok Sabha is now 60. With Mr. Modi’s proposal, it will increase to 90. Similarly, the difference between UP and Tamil Nadu will increase from 41 to at least 61. Such instances can be manifold.”He alleged that “Modi is pushing for a proposal that will work more to the benefit of larger and more populous states as their already large numbers will swell further”.Ramesh further said that it is not just South India but states like Punjab and Haryana and states in the North East will also see a decline in their relative influence.“The country is facing a serious economic and foreign policy crisis. The Prime Minister is concerned that he is pushing to increase the powers of the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies without meaningful consultation and wider public debate,” he concluded his post. “It is nothing but a weapon of mass distraction (WMD).”Sharing his post with a quote, Congress leader Manish Tewari said, “The framing done by PM Modi is absolutely wrong. The framing should be how much Southern, Western, North-Eastern and North-Western India will lose in terms of political importance compared to the Hindi speaking states of India in terms of difference in the number of parliamentary seats,” Tiwari said.He claimed that the North-West—Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and even Delhi—will lose out as they are already marginalized in the larger federal scheme. Tiwari said, “Today they have only 40 seats in Parliament. UP alone has 80 seats and this gap will increase further.”Noting that even what the PMO and BJP are proposing is still vague, Tiwari said that “it will further upset the federal balance to the detriment of non-Hindi speaking states”.Senior leader P. Chidambaram also told X that the proposal to convene Parliament on April 16-18 is mischievous and should be opposed.“Voting is scheduled for April 23 in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (and April 29 in West Bengal). 39 MPs from Tamil Nadu and 28 MPs from West Bengal are on the opposition benches in the Lok Sabha. They will be fully engaged in their constituencies during April 16-18. If important Constitution amendment bills are brought up for discussion and voting on those dates, how will these 67 MPs in the Lok Sabha participate and vote? I suspect the design is to exclude these MPs. Is,” Chidambaram alleged.The former Union minister, who held the charge of finance and home affairs during the UPA regime, said, “Since the draft of the bills to be introduced by the government in Parliament on April 16-18 have not been revealed, I cannot comment on the substance of the bills. But the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday gives an indication of what the bills are likely to contain.”He said the proposal to increase the Lok Sabha member strength from 548 (present member number 543) to 816 is regressive and will widen the gap between the more populous states and the southern states which have stabilized their population.Chidambaram suggested that reservation of one-third seats for women in the Lok Sabha could be achieved by reserving one-third of the current number of seats. He asked, “The Lok Sabha with 816 members will become a large and unwieldy assembly, with each member having fewer opportunities to speak and less time. What can an MP say when he gets an opportunity to speak once in three months and not more than a few minutes?”