Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin urges CMs of 7 states to form Joint Action Committee against delimitation

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday called on the leaders of seven states to form a Joint Action Committee against the Union government’s proposed delimitation exercise to redraw the boundary of parliamentary constituencies, ANI reported.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader urged his counterparts in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Odisha and Punjab to join the committee for its first proposed meeting on March 22 in Chennai.

Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies. Article 82 of the Constitution states that after every census is completed, the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to each state must be adjusted based on changes in their population.

“Those states who controlled their population and achieved superior governance indicators will face an unjust punishment – reduced representation in the very forum where national policies are determined,” Stalin wrote in a letter to his counterparts.

He called the proposed delimitation exercise a “blatant assault on federalism” and said that “the essence of India’s democracy rests on its federal character – a system that gives each State its rightful voice while honouring our sacred unity as one nation”.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister clarified that he was not against the delimitation process. “What we oppose is its weaponisation against States that fulfilled their national...

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