Did Vijay soften his stance on delimitation within a week?
Question arises with Vijay urging the Centre to provide clear legislative assurance that no state should lose its percentage share of parliamentary representation in the southern zonal conference
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has shown a notable shift in his approach to the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats. While recently advocating for a permanent freeze on the number of seats at 543 and maintaining existing inter-state distribution through an assembly resolution, he has now moderated his demand. Speaking at the 31st southern zonal council meeting, Vijay urged the Union government to provide legislative assurance that no state would face a reduction in its parliamentary representation percentage due to successful population control measures. This change has led to speculation about the underlying political motives behind his earlier, more assertive stance, with some suggesting a strategy to politically isolate the DMK and the influence of Congress party leaders.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has shown a notable shift in his approach to the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats. While recently advocating for a permanent freeze on the number of seats at 543 and maintaining existing inter-state distribution through an assembly resolution, he has now moderated his demand. Speaking at the 31st southern zonal council meeting, Vijay urged the Union government to provide legislative assurance that no state would face a reduction in its parliamentary representation percentage due to successful population control measures. This change has led to speculation about the underlying political motives behind his earlier, more assertive stance, with some suggesting a strategy to politically isolate the DMK and the influence of Congress party leaders.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has shown a notable shift in his approach to the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats. While recently advocating for a permanent freeze on the number of seats at 543 and maintaining existing inter-state distribution through an assembly resolution, he has now moderated his demand. Speaking at the 31st southern zonal council meeting, Vijay urged the Union government to provide legislative assurance that no state would face a reduction in its parliamentary representation percentage due to successful population control measures. This change has led to speculation about the underlying political motives behind his earlier, more assertive stance, with some suggesting a strategy to politically isolate the DMK and the influence of Congress party leaders.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay seems to have changed his stance in the delimitation issue within a week. The chief minister who convened the Tamil Nadu MPs meeting and later moved a resolution in the assembly with a demand to permanently freeze the Lok Sabha at 543 seats chose to soften his stand while speaking at the 31st southern zonal council meeting.
Addressing the southern zonal council meeting on Thursday held at Kovalam on the outskirts of Chennai, Vijay urged the Union government retain the existing state-wise distribution to a broader demand that no state should lose its percentage of parliamentary representation because of population stabilisation.
Speaking at the meeting in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah, Vijay said the Centre should “provide a clear legislative assurance that no state will suffer a reduction in its percentage of representation in Parliament on account of its success in population stabilisation.”
It was only on August 12, Vijay himself had moved a resolution in the state assembly seeking permanent retention of the Lok Sabha's strength at 543 seats and the permanent maintenance of the existing inter-state distribution of seats. The resolution sought a permanent freeze in the number of seats. However, in his speech on Thursday, Vijay did not mention the words “permanent” or “543” that were there in the resolution.
His speech had raised several questions with regard to TVK’s intentions behind calling for a MPs meeting and moving a resolution in the assembly. While sources have it that the MPs meeting was called because of the pressure from a few MPs and leaders of the Congress party, the resolution was brought in the assembly to politically corner the DMK.
However, critics and political observers in Tamil Nadu say that Vijay did not ever choose to utter the same sentences in front of Amit Shah, which were mentioned in the resolution.