Published 21 August 2026
Reading Time: 4 minutes
From the statement of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, it seems that he has softened his stance on the issue of delimitation.
Earlier he was demanding to keep the existing number of seats in the Lok Sabha stable, but now he has demanded that the percentage of existing seats of each state in the Parliament should be kept safe.
Speaking at the 31st Southern Regional Council meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Mamallapuram on Thursday, Vijay said, "I urge the central government to give a clear guarantee that the success of any state in family planning will not reduce its percentage of representation in Parliament."
This statement of Vijay indicates that there has been some change in the clear opposition to delimitation stance in the resolution presented by him in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on August 12.
In contrast, Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar demanded from the Central Government that the current number of Lok Sabha seats should be maintained for the next 25 years.
Vijay said, "The moratorium on allocation of Lok Sabha seats based on the 1971 census is about to end and the Delimitation Bill 2026 is being considered. In such a situation, there is a real and shared concern among the southern states that delimitation based primarily on population could weaken our existing voice in Parliament."
He said that the southern states have been at the forefront in the field of family planning, human development and economic growth.
Vijay said, "These achievements are a success story of national priorities. There should be no reduction in our representation because of this."
What are other parties in Tamil Nadu saying?
Senior Tamil Nadu Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has written on Twitter, "The same stand has been adopted in all three, the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, the resolution of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the resolution of the Congress Working Committee. There should be no change in the total number of 543 Lok Sabha seats or 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.
"The Congress Party's stance is that the present number of seats should be maintained for the next 25 years. We are happy that the ruling party of Tamil Nadu and the main opposition parties are also supporting this stance.
AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran has attacked the TVK government for changing its stand on delimitation within a week of the resolution being passed in the Assembly.
He asked, "Is the TVK government changing its stand on the issue of delimitation of Parliament?"
He said Vijay's recent comments, just weeks after calling a meeting of alliance MPs and hastily passing a resolution against delimitation in the Assembly, present a clear contradiction.
Most political parties in Tamil Nadu say that if the number of Lok Sabha members is increased through delimitation, the representation of southern states including Tamil Nadu in Parliament may be affected.
This issue was discussed in the all-party meeting of MPs chaired by Chief Minister Vijay on August 8 and it was decided to pass the resolution in the Assembly.
Chief Minister Vijay had presented a proposal in this regard in the Assembly on August 12.
The proposal said that if the Delimitation Bill is passed and Lok Sabha constituencies are delimited afresh on the basis of the population of the states, then the number of MPs elected from the southern states is likely to reduce.
Therefore, it was emphasized in the proposal that the total number of members of the Lok Sabha should be kept at 543 only.
Victory on target of opposition parties
DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran has asked whether Vijay's stance is changing on delimitation?
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, Dayanidhi Maran said, "DMK's stand on the issue of delimitation is clear that it wants fair delimitation. But Chief Minister Vijay's stand changes as soon as Amit Shah comes in front."
Senior journalist SP Lakshmanan told BBC Tamil, "Chief Minister Vijay is not wrong in talking about the issue of delimitation. But he has changed his stance."
He said, "An all-party meeting should have been called regarding delimitation. Instead, it was wrong to call a meeting of only all-party MPs without any hesitation."
He also admitted that in this matter DMK's allegation that the resolution passed in the meeting of all party MPs was passed accepting the stand of Congress seems to be true.
However, he also said that DMK also did not take the right step in this matter.
He said, "We could have requested that the resolution brought in the Tamil Nadu Assembly be passed by adding some additional points instead of supporting it in its original form."
He said that political parties in the state should not rely on national parties on issues related to the rights of Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu Law Minister Nirmal Kumar says that there has been no change in Vijay's stand.
Speaking to reporters after the Southern Regional Council meeting, when Minister Nirmal Kumar was asked whether the Vijay government's stand on the delimitation issue had changed, he said, "There is no change in our stand. There is also no change in the fact that 543 seats in Parliament and 39 seats in Tamil Nadu should be kept permanent."
