Chennai, August 13: The spokesperson for the Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Narayanan Tirupati, stated on Wednesday that the DMK and TVK are “in the same boat” regarding the issue of delimitation. His comments followed the Tamil Nadu Assembly’s passage of a special proposal presented by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. This proposal urges the central government to maintain the number of Lok Sabha seats at 543 permanently, amid concerns about future delimitation and to secure the current distribution of parliamentary seats among states.
Despite this, the DMK has expressed its support for the proposal.
Speaking to reporters, Tirupati emphasized that both the DMK and TVK are aligned, as the DMK appears to be in a state of confusion. Initially, they insisted that not a single seat should be reduced. Now, they are being reassured that Tamil Nadu will retain more than 20 seats.
Citing examples of leadership from the eastern, southern, and western parts of the country, the BJP leader noted that the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, hails from Odisha in the east, the Vice President, C.P. Radhakrishnan, is from Tamil Nadu in the south, and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is from Gujarat in the west. He pointed out that there is no North Indian in the highest offices of the country.
BJP legislator Bhojarajan stated that the party opposes the special proposal introduced by Chief Minister Vijay. He argued that delimitation is essential for increasing the number of representatives to better serve society.
He stressed that labeling the delimitation issue as a “North-South conflict” is inaccurate. He remarked that despite the diverse cultures and languages, we are one nation, and we should not create excuses or accusations suggesting that the central government will divide North and South India. This notion is outdated.
Conversely, DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Ilangoavan believes that delimitation is “not necessary.” He stated that the DMK opposes delimitation because the BJP government aims to increase the number of seats to 850 on various grounds, which they completely oppose. They want to maintain the existing constituencies even after delimitation. The proposal was supported because the delimitation process would adversely affect Tamil Nadu and other southern states.
Ilangoavan argued that delimitation is “unfair” as its implementation would result in the four southern states receiving approximately 170 MPs, while the northern states would have 680 MPs.
The DMK leader accused any government of neglecting the southern states, regardless of its affiliation.
Leave a Comment