Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Saturday chaired a meeting of state MPs on the Centre’s proposed delimitation. The meeting was, however, boycotted by the DMK and the AIADMK which dubbed the deliberations a “farce” and a “drama”.
During the meeting, attended by TVK allies, mainly Congress, VCK, CPI, CPIM, IUMl and MDMK, Vijay led the discussions on the proposal of the Centre to carry out delimitation and its likely impact on the state.
According to sources, it is learnt that the TVK’s alliance partners have asked Chief Minister Vijay to table and pass a resolution in the ongoing Assembly session opposing delimitation.
Who Attended And Who Skipped?
According to the sources, it is learnt that a total of 19 MPs participated in the meeting — 11 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 Rajya Sabha MP each, did participate in the meeting called by the Chief Minister. AIADMK, which has four MPs in the Upper House and its ally the PMK, which has one MP, also in the Rajya Sabha, did not participate.
The DMK has 22 Lok Sabha and 8 Rajya Sabha MPs.
Congress veteran leader P Chidambaram and VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan were among the participants.
Marxist party’s Su Venkatesan, MDMK’s Durai Vaiko, the Congress party’s Jothimani were among others who participated.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary M Sai Kumar on August 6 and 7 had sent separate invitations to the MPs for the meeting, which was held at Kalaivanar Arangam, a government-owned auditorium.
DMK, AIADMK Boycott Meet
Responding to why DMK boycotted the meeting called by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on delimitation, DMK MP Kanimozhi said, “We could have participated in the meeting if there was a need because, according to what is happening in Parliament, there are only four more days of session. The Union Government has not invited any of the political parties to discuss the new Delimitation Bill. There’s not been any discussion. So there is no need for us to have a meeting about delimitation when the bill is not going to be brought. We find it pointless.”
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.
Meanwhile, 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?