Tamil Nadu All-Party Meet Decides on Assembly Resolution Against Delimitation

The Tamil Nadu government will move a resolution in the state assembly formally recording its opposition to any delimitation exercise, following an all-party meeting of MPs convened by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Tuesday.

The meeting, attended by 19 MPs from the ruling TVK alliance and its supporting parties, decided to insist on a complete freeze on the current number of parliamentary constituencies – 543 for the Lok Sabha and 39 for Tamil Nadu. The leaders argued that the state cannot afford any change in its seat share for at least the next 40-50 years, according to sources who attended the meeting.

“We will not support delimitation,” said Congress MP Jothimani, who participated in the deliberations. “Chief Minister Vijay has taken a very good step by convening this all-party meeting. If delimitation is implemented, democracy will no longer remain in its true sense. The chief minister has reaffirmed his commitment to protecting the interests and rights of the people of Tamil Nadu.”

The meeting comes amid growing political debate over the potential redrawing of electoral boundaries after the next census. Delimitation is intended to adjust seat allocations based on population shifts, but states like Tamil Nadu – which have achieved lower population growth – fear they may lose parliamentary representation compared to states with higher growth rates.

The all-party meet was attended by parties such as the Congress, VCK, MDMK, IUML, CPI and CPI(M). Four of the eleven Congress MPs were given an opportunity to speak. One key suggestion that emerged was for the assembly to pass a formal resolution against any such exercise, which was subsequently accepted.

However, the opposition DMK chose to boycott the meeting. Its Deputy General Secretary Kanimozhi Karunanidhi questioned Chief Minister Vijay’s priorities, urging him instead to take action against Karnataka’s proposed Mekedatu dam project. She asked whether Vijay was prepared to send state government representatives along with MPs to personally submit the assembly resolution opposing the Mekedatu project to the Union Jal Shakti Minister.

Vijay, responding to the boycott, is learnt to have remarked that it was unfortunate that a party which had ruled Tamil Nadu for six terms, and whose founding leaders made sacrifices for the state’s interests, decided not to attend the meeting.

All leaders who attended the meeting spoke, with Vijay delivering the closing remarks for around six minutes. The consensus was that the ruling alliance will now formally push for a permanent freeze on the number of seats, preserving the existing distribution between states.

So far, the Union government has neither announced plans to introduce a Delimitation Bill in the current parliamentary session nor communicated any proposal to amend the existing law. This has led political observers to view the state’s move as a preemptive measure.

The DMK, meanwhile, said it remains firmly opposed to any delimitation exercise that could reduce Tamil Nadu’s representation in parliament or adversely affect its rights. Kanimozhi noted that parties such as the Congress, CPI, CPI(M), VCK and IUML had earlier attended a previous all-party meeting and had opposed any delimitation formula detrimental to the state.

The proposed assembly resolution is expected to be tabled in the upcoming session. It remains to be seen whether the DMK will support it, given its boycott of the consultative meeting.