VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan on Wednesday said that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin should also convene a meeting with Chief Ministers of other southern States to discuss the impact of the proposed delimitation exercise, which may lead to a reduction in the number of Lok Sabha seats especially for southern States.Interacting with media here, he said that he welcomed Mr. Stalin’s call for an all-party meeting on March 5 to discuss the impact of the proposed delimitation exercise, which will be based on population. “Mr. Stalin should also convene similar meetings with other CMs of southern States as it will help to create an awareness about the issue in the region. The Delimitation exercise should not be based on population alone,” he said.Terming the call for an all-party meeting on the issue as ‘historic’, Chidambaram MP said that the proposed exercise will be done after a similar exercise was carried out five decades ago by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.The delimitation exercise then was based on the 20-Point Programme, which was introduced by Ms. Gandhi. It emphasised family planning and welfare of women. “Compared to other States, Tamil Nadu fared well in birth control measures and promoting welfare of women. As a result, the overall population in the State declined over the years while per capita income gradually increased,” he said.The VCK leader said that the proposed delimitation exercise based on population was very dangerous to the country’s federal structure as it may reduce the proportion representation of States in Lok Sabha. It has been estimated that southern States may lose 80 Lok Sabha seats in the proposed exercise with Tamil Nadu’s share may go down from 39 seats to 31. “The New Education Policy (NEP) aims to implement the RSS hidden agenda of one nation, one culture and one language policy. We are only against the imposition of Hindi on us and not against the language itself,” he said.Published - February 27, 2025 12:33 am IST