Next meeting on delimitation will be held in Hyderabad: Tamil Nadu CM Stalin
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 22 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday said that the next meeting on the delimitation of constituencies will be held in Hyderabad, Telangana.
“The next meeting on delimitation of constituencies will be held in Hyderabad, Telangana,” CM Stalin said.
Earlier today, Tamil Nadu CM while leading the Joint Action Committee meeting, called on all the opposition parties to be united in the protest against the delimitation exercise, which he claimed will weaken the political might of the southern states.
During the first meeting called in Chennai on Saturday, Stalin also proposed to form a legal expert committee on the delimitation issue, while stressing the need for a “fair delimitation”.
Urging leaders to take the issue of delimitation to a legal platform, Stalin said, “I appeal to you all to give inputs to take this political thing in a legal way. I propose to form a legal expert committee on this constituency delimitation issue. If we all unitedly protest, only can get us victory.”
He added, “Let’s unitedly protest and make sure our representation should not get decreased in any situation. Let us all be united and protest till we get fair delimitation.”
Stalin expressed strong opposition to the population-based constituency delimitation, alleging that it would disproportionately affect states like Tamil Nadu, which have taken significant steps to control population growth.
“As per constituency delimitation on a population basis, our states will get affected since we have taken action to control population, that’s why we are in a situation to oppose it, and we may get decrease our representatives in parliament,” Stalin said.
He further explained that the loss of parliamentary representation could lead to a reduction in political strength.
“States here have shown the result of decreasing population. By decreasing the people’s representatives in parliament, our strength to express our views will decrease,” Stalin said.
Stalin concluded by reiterating that the opposition was not against the concept of delimitation but was aimed at ensuring that the process remains fair and does not undermine political representation.
In his speech Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Central government over the issue of the delimitation stating that this sudden process without any consultation is not driven by any Constitutional principle but by “narrow political interests.”
“Proposed delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies is hanging over our heads…Various reports indicate that the BJP-led Union Government is going ahead with the delimitation process without any consultation. This sudden move is not driven by any Constitutional principle or any democratic imperative. But by narrow political interests,” CM Vijayan said during the meeting.
The Kerala Chief Minister further stated that if the delimitation is carried out purely on the basis of population, then Kerala and other southern states will suffer from this.
The meeting was attended by various political leaders, including Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Odisha Congress President Bhakta Charan Das, and Biju Janata Dal leader Sanjay Kumar Das Burma, among others.
