Stalin Wants PM’s Word on Delimitation

Chennai: Demanding an assurance in writing from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the delimitation of Parliamentary constituencies would be carried out on the basis of the 1971 Census and that Tamil Nadu would not be shortchanged in the process, Chief Minister M K Stalin said the demand for rights on the issue, raised by the State, had already resonated in a few other States like Telangana and Karnataka.

Speaking at the meeting organized on the eve of Stalin’s 72nd birthday on Friday with leaders of 23 alliance parties of the DMK taking part, Stalin said that he had convened an all-party meeting on March 5 to discuss the delimitation issue and was glad that the main opposition in the State, the AIADMK, had agreed to participate in it.

To those parties that had declined to take part in the meeting, he said their selfish decision aimed at making the BJP happy would only be detrimental to the State and asked them to think about the fate of all those parties in other States that went along with the BJP. ‘Please stand by the State,’ he told all the parties including the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP.

Stating that unity among the political parties was essential to face the Union Government and its machinations, he alleged it was intimidating the State government. However, the DMK government would not buckle down to pressure like the AIADMK did, he said at the event held at the YMCA Grounds in Kottivakkam on East Coast Road for the alliance partners to reaffirm their solidarity with the DMK and to rally round it for the 2026 Assembly elections.

All the parties affirmed their faith in Stalin and said that they would stand by the DMK, which had emerged as the party that would fight for the rights of the State. VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan said that it was the duty of the alliance partners to protect the State government and other leaders like TNCC president K Selvaperunthogai taking a swipe at the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam president Vijay for his statements and stance.

Stalin said that if the AIADMK-BJP alliance had won the 2021 Assembly elections, the State would have been finished off by now as the BJP would have run over the alliance partner and appropriated everything. It was the secular progressive alliance that saved the State from the evil league and became a model for the entire country, he said.

The BJP government was unable to digest the fact that the DMK government was setting the agenda for the opposition and was hence conspiring to run down the State by introducing schemes like NEET and refusing to pay compensation for the natural disasters that wrecked the State. The BJP government had not done anything beneficial to the State, he said.

Then they brought in that National Education Policy and refused to pay the dues because the State refused to comply with it, Stalin said and wanted to know what law stipulated that the States should follow NEP and adopt the three-language system. ‘Was it a law passed by the Parliament,’ he asked.