As Delimitation Row Escalates In Tamil Nadu, BJP's Annamalai Announces Boycott Of All-Party Meet

Chennai: Amid the controversy over delimitation in the southern states, recently announced by Union Minister Amit Shah, Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Saturday wrote to Chief Minister MK Stalin and announced a boycott of the all-party meeting scheduled for March 5, 2025.

He also announced a signature campaign starting on March 5 in support of the three-language policy for all students of the state.

The state BJP chief took to X to share the letter that read, “On behalf of BJP Tamil Nadu, I wish to inform you that you have failed to inform people on the source of your information that the Delimitation exercise would be carried out based on population. Since this is an imaginary and baseless fear you are spreading, we have decided not to participate in the all-party meeting convened on March 5, 2025.”

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The letter further read, “Through this letter, we also wish to inform you that BJP Tamil Nadu is commencing its signature campaign on March 5, 2025, in support of the three-language policy for all students in the State as recommended in the new National Education Policy.”

The row escalated despite Shah's assurance that the southern states would not lose a 'single Parliamentary seat' due to delimitation. Shah accused Stalin of spreading 'misinformation' on the issue after the latter said the delimitation exercise would impact the southern states, especially Tamil Nadu as it would lose 8 out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats due to delimitation.

Shah assured that no southern state including Tamil Nadu would see a reduction in the Parliamentary representation when delimitation will be done on a pro-rata basis.

He said he wanted to reassure the public of South India that Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept the interest of all in mind to ensure that not even one seat is reduced pro-rata.

He added that whatever increase was there, the Southern states would get a fair share and that there was no reason to doubt the move.

Senior DMK leader and Lok Sabha member A Raja questioned Shah on the basis of the pro-rata and asked if Tamil Nadu was 'being penalised' for following the government's advice on population control.

Raja said while the Parliamentary seats in the state may not reduce as claimed by the Centre, those in other states may go up as a result of the delimitation.

Raja threatened to withdraw the all-party meeting on March 5 if the Centre declared that the pro-rata was not based on population but on the numerical strength of the parliamentary constituency.

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