Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin headed an all-party meeting on Wednesday over the delimitation issue.
In it, a resolution was passed requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give assurance in the Parliament that if delimitation is done, it should be based on the 1971 population census from 2026 to the next 30 years.
CM Stalin also announced that a Joint Action Committee would be formed representing Southern States, with MPs, to carry forward these demands and protests and create awareness about the importance of this issue.
DMK-led State Government headed the meeting on delimitation in Tamil Nadu secretariat, which was attended by more than 55 political party and organisation leaders and representatives.
Also read: Stalin: BJP-led Centre pays lip service to Tamil for votes
Principal opposition party AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), the Congress and Left parties, actor-politician Vijay's TVK among others attended the meeting which was boycotted by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) and former union minister GK Vasan's Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar).
Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai has labelled the meeting as "funniest," saying that the discussion will not "affect the common man."
He termed the fear that the southern states will be disadvantaged by the delimitation process as "imaginary".
Five resolutions were passed in the meeting, including the effects of delimitation to southern states if that is done based on population.
While speaking in the all-party meeting, the Tamil Nadu CM reiterated that delimitation is a sword hanging over the heads of southern states.
"Tamil Nadu have been pushed to carry forward one big rights struggle. A sword known as Delimitation hangs above the heads of southern states. In 2026, the Union Government will delimitate Parliament constituencies. Usually, this would be done based on population. India's important goal was to control the population. In controlling the population, TN have achieved success. We have achieved this with family planning, women empowerment, and Health," he said.
He also said, "If present 543 parliament constituencies continue, due to less population there is possibility of reducing our Parliament constituency number. It has been said Tamil Nadu could lose eight seats. There won't be 39 MPs for Tamil Nadu; only 32 MPs will be there. If Parliament Constituencies increased to 848 and delimitation done based on the present percentile, we should get 22 constituencies more. But if delimitation is done based on the present population, we will get only 10 more seats. So we will lose 12 more seats."
"If delimitation is done based on population, this could lead to the loss of Tamil Nadu's representation. Together we need to defeat this conspiracy," Stalin added.
Speaking on the resolution, the Tamil Nadu CM emphasised that this all-party meeting unanimously strongly opposes Delimitation based on population, which is seen as a big threat to India's federal structure and Tamil Nadu's and other Southern States' representation.
"Tamil Nadu and southern states representations is being reduced and it is not fair for a state which have implemented family planning for the welfare of the Nation. To encourage family planning by all the states, the then PM in 2000 gave assurance that parliament constituency delimitation would be drafted based on the 1971 population census. Similarly, PM Modi should give assurance that now also the same draft would be followed from 2026 to the next 30 years," Tamil Nadu CM said.
"Tamil Nadu is not against delimitation. However, this all-party meeting request delimitation shouldn't become the punishment to the state, which implemented various social welfare schemes in the past 50 years. This is the minimum demand of this all-party meeting to the Union Government. To carry forward these demands and protests and to create awareness among people about this issue, a Joint Action Committee would be formed with MPs from Tamil Nadu and other southern states. We will send formal invites to those parties," the Tamil Nadu CM added.
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