War Against Unjust Delimitation to Involve Other States

Chennai:Rejecting a Parliamentary constituency delimitation process based exclusively on population figures from future Census, the all-party meeting, convened by Chief Minister M K Stalin at Chennai on Wednesday, proposed to form a Joint Action Committee (JAC) with political parties from Tamil Nadu and other States having concerns over denial of equitable representation to launch a united fight against the Union Government’s move.

The meeting, held at the Secretariat and attended by 123 leaders representing 58 political parties, reaffirmed Tamil Nadu’s united stand and unanimously resolved not to accept any reduction in Parliamentary representation for any southern State that proactively implemented population control measures in the interest of the nation.

Unanimously resolving that the current freeze on delimitation based on 1971 population be extended beyond 2026, the meeting urged for immediate engagement with counterparts in other States sharing the same concerns of the unfair delimitation to forge a cohesive alliance and also to form the JAC.

The meeting wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give an unequivocal assurance in Parliament that the seat allocation based on the 1971 population would be extended for another 30 years and a Constitutional amendment should be passed to ensure that.

The State would not accept under any circumstance the reduction of its existing percentage of seats – 7.18 % of the total – and would not allow delimitation to be a disguised weapon against progressive States.

With Tamil Nadu remaining steadfast in its stand for federalism and fairness, necessary steps based on consensus would be taken by the government, Stalin assured the meeting. Official outreach would be made to political parties in the South Indian states to be part of the JAC.

Stalin thanked all parties that stood together as a single unit in the meeting, setting aside the political differences to send a clear and uncompromising message on the unjust delimitation initiative.

The fears expressed by the Chief Minister is that the State would lose 8 of its 39 seats if the delimitation was carried out on the basis of the 2026 Census by keeping the total seats at 534. Even if the alternative method of increasing the constituencies was adopted the State should get 7.81 percent of the total seats, the resolution at the meeting said, clarifying that Tamil Nadu was not against delimitation per se.

The five parties that did not attend the all-party meeting despite being invited by the State government were the BJP, Naam Tamilar Katchi and BJP allies, TMC led by G K Vasan, Puthiya Tamilagam of K Krishnaswamy and Puthiya Neethi Katchi of A C Shanmugham.