CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday announced in the Assembly that a delegation of 39 MPs from the state would soon call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for a fair delimitation of Lok Sabha seats. It is to retrieve the rights of Tamil Nadu and that of similarly-placed other states by taking forward the ‘Tamil Nadu will fight, Tamil Nadu will win,’ slogan, the CM said.
Addressing the Assembly on the Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting held in Chennai on March 22 for a fair delimitation, the CM said the state’s awareness campaign on the issue has had a national impact. “Through this House, I wholeheartedly thank the principal opposition party — the AIADMK — and other parties that took part in the all-party meeting and those that are part of the JAC,” he said. One of the resolutions adopted by the JAC meeting said, “The core committee of MPs shall submit a joint representation on the above lines to the PM during the ongoing parliamentary session.”
Stalin recalled that the TN Assembly, for the first time in the country, adopted a unanimous resolution on February 14, highlighting how the democratic rights and political representation of states would be affected due to the 2026 delimitation. A resolution was adopted later during the all-party meeting on March 5, urging the PM to unequivocally assure the Parliament that the 1971 Census would remain the basis for delimitation for 30 years (till 2056), he recalled.
Don’t penalise states that cut population: CM
Stalin said the all-party meeting resolution also demanded a Constitutional amendment in this regard. The CM said the first JAC meeting — attended by the CMs of several states — adopted a resolution demanding that the freeze on parliamentary constituencies based on the 1971 Census be extended by another 25 years as it was done in 2001. The resolutions also mentioned that the states, whose population share had dropped due to population control programmes, should not be penalised.