Flexing its muscles against the proposed delimitation exercise, the ruling DMK is convening the first meeting of the Joint-Action Committee (JAC) on March 22 (Saturday) in Chennai with three non-BJP Chief Ministers and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister as well as leaders of political parties confirming their participation.

This is a platform of parties opposed to the BJP and those in attendance at the meet include Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), Bhagwant Mann (Punjab) as well as DK Shiva Kumar (Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka), former Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik, Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran, YSR Congress leader Mithu Reddy and representatives from the BRS, Congress in Punjab and the Trinamool Congress and the IUML. Some of them are expected to land in Chennai a day ahead of the meeting. The agenda of the meeting is to chalk out an action plan to freeze the delimitation exercise and to carry out a campaign to create awareness among the public.

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin, besides writing to the Chief Ministers and political leaders, has sent a delegation, comprising his cabinet colleagues and MPs, to personally invite them. The decision to have a JAC of states, besides the southern states, which would be affected by the population-based delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies, was taken at an all-party meeting convened by Stalin recently. There is political consensus across Tamil Nadu, barring the BJP, that delimitation based on population would result in the reduction of seats for states that have effectively carried out population control and give an undue advantage to populous north Indian states.

To keep the issue in the limelight, DMK MPs have been raising the issue in the current session of Parliament with the DMK’s Parliamentary Party Leader Kanimozhi giving notice for a discussion in the House. On Thursday, DMK MPs came to Parliament sporting black T-shirts with a slogan decrying delimitation and held a demonstration outside the House.

Earlier, Stalin had said that the delimitation exercise could strip the state of 9 LS seats. Tamil Nadu at present has a total of 39 LS seats. This, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had alleged was a conspiracy to crush the voice of the state and its representation in Parliament. Besides being anti-federal, he alleged that the BJP’s intent was to hold on to power by winning the disproportionately increased number of seats in the north. Consolidating his position, Stalin also proposed to hold a national conference on the issue, which might further cement the JAC as a platform to take on the BJP at the national level.