DMK hosts Opposition meet on delimitation
The Chief Ministers of Kerala, Telangana, and Punjab — Pinarayi Vijayan, A Revanth Reddy, and Bhagwant Mann — along with Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, and senior representatives of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will attend the first Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting on “Fair Delimitation” convened by the DMK in Chennai on Saturday.
West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) was also invited but is learnt to have decided to not send any representative.
The meeting in Chennai comes in the wake of a growing regional pushback against the parliamentary delimitation exercise, which many in the southern and eastern states fear will erode federal principles and disproportionately diminish representation from certain states.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, who is behind the initiative, said the meeting would mark a “historic day for Indian federalism”. In a video message shared on social media on Friday, Stalin spoke about the stakes at hand, warning that states that have effectively managed their population growth and contributed to national progress must not be penalised by a skewed delimitation process. “It will strike at the very foundation of federalism in India,” he said. “It will erode the essence of democracy itself.”