MK Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and his administration have been vocally opposing the delimitation process and the “imposition of Hindi” by the center.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday urged seven peers, including Mamata Banerjee of Bengal, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, and Mohan Chandra Majhi of the BJP-ruled state of Odisha, to form a “joint action committee” of political parties opposing the center’s proposed delimitation exercise.
Senior leaders from non-ruling parties and the BJP in each of these states, together with Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, Siddaramaiah of Karnataka, Revanth Reddy of Telangana, and Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, have also been invited to a meeting in Chennai on March 22 “to chart a collective course.”
“Delimitation is a flagrant attack on federalism, depriving us of our legitimate voice in Parliament and punishing states who maintained population control. He declared on X, “We will not tolerate this democratic injustice.”
The center’s “Hindi imposition” and delimitation have been fiercely opposed by Mr. Stalin and his government ahead of the Tamil Nadu election next year, claiming that neither is required and that doing so would be an assault on the federal nature of the Constitution as well as the Tamil people and language.
The center has denied these accusations, arguing that the new National Education Policy and the three-language formula do not require any student to learn Hindi. It has also reacted to criticism of delimitation by stating that the southern states will not suffer.
The Letter From Stalin To Seven Chief Ministers
The latter issue, which the Tamil Nadu leader cautioned may reduce the power of states that have been able to maintain population control, is anticipated to be discussed at Mr. Stalin’s planned meeting.
In his letter, he noted that a 2002 amendment, approved during the tenure of BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said that changes to the total number of Lok Sabha seats, currently at 543, would be suspended until at least 2026, putting a halt to delimitation exercises after 1976.
But according to the center’s current data-driven delimitation strategy, states with a regulated population may see fewer Lok Sabha seats awarded, while other states—such as the northern BJP-ruled states—will receive more due to significantly larger populations.
Math for delimitation is straightforward and frightening. According to reports, there are two possible techniques being examined for the exercise, which is based on population (and). The first scenario will include a redistribution of the current 543 seats. In the second, there is a chance that the total will surpass 800.
“In both scenarios, states that have successfully implemented population control measures stand to lose significantly if the exercise is based on post-2026 population levels,” said Stalin.
“We should not be penalised for effectively controlling population growth…”
About Amit Shah’s Promises
The chief minister of Tamil Nadu also criticized Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s guarantees that the southern states will not lose any seats in the Lok Sabha.
Mr. Stalin, however, was not persuaded, pointing out that the Home Minister had not clarified if the northern states or any others would receive more in its place, thus diminishing Tamil Nadu’s significance.
Not only has he voiced his opinions, but Siddaramaiah also criticized Mr. Shah’s delimitation clarifications last month, labeling them “misleading” and “unreliable.” He charged that delimitation was a “tool to weaken southern states that had resisted its dominance” employed by the BJP.
An Appeal From MK Stalin To PM Modi
Mr. Stalin’s letter to the seven chief ministers comes after he made a request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week, asking him to make sure that delimitation, if it is to be done now, is based on population data from 1971 and then frozen for 30 years in order to encourage other states to restrain growth.
This was included in a resolution that Tamil political parties proposed; the BJP and its regional partners chose not to attend the meeting. A dark horse for the state election the next year, actor Vijay’s TVK was present.
Additionally, the resolution sought guarantees that any increase in the number of MPs would be based on the same ratio of MPs to states as determined by the 1971 census.
In an effort to increase the state’s population, DMK leaders have even encouraged newlywed couples to have more children as the delimitation dispute has intensified in the run-up to the next election.
