Chennai: Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay-led meeting of Tamil Nadu MPs belonging to alliance and friendly parties Saturday decided to oppose in total the proposed delimitation exercise of the union government.
The meeting was boycotted by the main Opposition party, the DMK, and key Dravidian party, the AIADMK, which dubbed the deliberations a “farce” and a “hurriedly staged drama” respectively.
A government release said the MPs demanded that the ratio of seats between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must remain at 2.2:1 and it was unanimously decided to adopt a resolution in the State Assembly to permanently safeguard the rights of Tamil Nadu and the other south Indian states in this matter.
The release added that the CM appealed, at the end of the meeting, to all MPs and parties, to work in tandem to uphold the rights of Tamil Nadu. He appealed that the proposed delimitation exercise must be dropped by the Centre since it will affect the representation and importance of Tamil Nadu.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Law Minister R Nirmal Kumar said that it had been decided at the meeting to oppose the proposed exercise as no change is needed as regards the composition of law makers in elected bodies.
“No change is needed in the number of 543 (in Lok Sabha). Similarly, no change is warranted as regards the 39 LS seats in Tamil Nadu,” he said, quoting the decision taken at the CM-led gathering.
The law minister alleged that the delimitation initiative was being pursued by the BJP government at the Centre eyeing easy election win and for the sake of “election arithmetic.” Hence, he said that Tamil Nadu does not need delimitation.
“Why do you want to do delimitation? Who is going to be benefited? Kumar asked and demanded that the proposed exercise be dropped and “delimitation freeze” be extended further by another 25 years.
Parliamentarians belonging to the ruling TVK’s alliance parties, the Congress, VCK, MDMK and IUML took part in the brainstorming.
Also, TVK’s friendly parties, the CPI and CPI(M) which support the government, took part in the meeting.
In total, 19 MPs supporting the TVK government participated.
Briefing reporters on the deliberations, VCK chief and MP, Thol Thirumavlavan said that all the Parliamentarians presented their views.
The VCK chief said: “We have unanimously passed a resolution. The (proposed) delimitation exercise must be dropped. The current total count of 543 (Lok Sabha seats) must continue. The seat allocation for the states must also continue as it is. That means, if we have 39 MPs in Tamil Nadu, that number must continue. This very consensus has been passed as a resolution in this meeting.
“The idea of increasing it to 50 per cent for all states or the stance of increasing the number based on population should not happen; that is the resolution adopted in this meeting. All the Members of Parliament presented their views on this basis.”
Though the DMK and AIADMK may have boycotted the meeting, Thirumavalavan said he believed that they would also take the same stand to oppose delimitation.
Speaking to reporters after taking part in the meeting, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said the quality of democracy will not improve with a larger parliament.
Chidambaram said: “We are very clear that the number of MPs in the Lok Sabha must be frozen at 543. This freeze must continue and the distribution among the states in the same ratio as it is today, must continue and Tamil Nadu must have 39 members within a 543 member house.”
Congress MP Jothimani said the chief minister listened to the views of the MPs from the state. It was decided that the delimitation bill in whatever form the Centre may present — including an increase of about 50 per cent for each state — will be disastrous and hence must be opposed. She said the delimitation exercise will prove to be detrimental to the interests of the nation, Tamil Nadu and democracy.
Eleven Congress MPs, two MPs each from CPI, CPI(M) and the VCK; one MP each from the MDMK and IUML took part. DMK’s alliance parties, MNM and DMDK, which have one RS MP each, did not take part.
AIADMK, which has four MPs in the Upper House and its ally the PMK, which has one MP, also in the RS, did not participate. The DMK has 22 Lok Sabha and 8 Rajya Sabha MPs.
Congress veteran leader P Chidambaram was among the participants. Marxist party’s Su Venkatesan, MDMK’s Durai Vaiko were among others who participated.
Senior DMK leader A Raja told reporters at Perambalur that it was “a farce, a laughable exercise” since the TVK regime was deliberating about something that it was not aware. “Is it fair?, he asked.
The AIADMK dubbed the meeting a “hurriedly staged drama,” as no new delimitation bill has been introduced in Parliament and also because there is no official announcement regarding it.
Against this background, the AIADMK asked, “Why is the chief minister hurriedly staging a drama in the name of an MP’s meeting?
After ignoring the demand of all the opposition parties to hold an all-party meeting to address the Cauvery-Mekedatu issue “happening right before our eyes,” why is the CM holding a meeting for a Bill that has not even been introduced, the AIADMK asked in a statement.
To this day, the Mettur Dam has not been opened. There is no water in the delta districts.”Without answering the tears of farmers, this government’s diversionary political drama will never be supported,” the AIADMK said.
