CHENNAI: DMK MPs Dayanidhi Maran and Thamizhachi Thangapandiyan on Sunday asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Madurai, if he was ready to give a legal guarantee for the percentage of Tamil Nadu’s representation in Parliament staying the same at 7.18.
In separate statements, both MPs said Tamil Nadu needs no deceptive assurance that the number of Lok Sabha seats for the state would not be reduced. The MPs said according to the Constitution, the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies should take place on the basis of the first Census conducted after 2026.
But the BJP-led union government has deferred the Census to 2027 only with a view to reducing the number of Lok Sabha seats for Tamil Nadu, they alleged.
Maran and Thangapandian said whenever Chief Minister M K Stalin raised the delimitation issue, there were criticisms that he was creating unnecessary tension. “Now, such people (critics) have been exposed before the people because the danger has arrived on our doorstep,” they added.
Meanwhile, another DMK MP, P Wilson, took a dim view of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s remarks hitting out at CM Stalin over the delimitation issue. Since Amit Shah was in Tamil Nadu, Wilson in a social media post asked if the AIADMK would give the BJP an ultimatum on ending their alliance if it is unable to assure TN that its 7.18% representation in Lok Sabha will continue after delimitation.