“I see no threat to south India.”

That’s how Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is framing the delimitation debate today.

At a time when several southern leaders are raising concerns about losing political representation, Naidu is taking a very different line.

He didn’t just play down those concerns — he dismissed them. He said delimitation will be fair. That no state will lose out. And that fears around political representation are misplaced.

His confidence comes from what Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament — that there would be a 50 percent proportional increase in seats for all states and that population criteria would be delinked.

But here’s the catch. That 50 percent assurance is not part of any law. It is not written into any bill. And Naidu is not a first-time politician. He knows that when it comes to something as consequential as delimitation, what matters is not what is said, but what is guaranteed.

How is the TDP chief justifying his stand? And why is it hard to take at face value? Let Me Explain.

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Producer: Nikhil Sekhar ET, Megha Mukundan, Script: Pooja Prasanna, Inputs: Jahnavi, Editor: Nikhil Sekhar ET.