No use increasing seats sans change in system

THE AIADMK on Thursday supported the resolutions moved by Chief Minister MK Stalin at the all-party meeting but later criticised the DMK government for convening the meeting in a hurry.

- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai

Significantly, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss totally differed from their ally BJP, whose state chief K Annamalai has been saying this all-party meeting was unnecessary.

In the meeting, AIADMK organising secretary D Jayakumar said even after delimitation, the total number of Lok Sabha seats should remain 39 in Tamil Nadu. Or if the delimitation is done based on the population of each Lok Sabha constituency without changing the overall strength of 545 in Parliament, no state will be affected. Jayakumar also suggested a modification to a resolution to the effect that Tamil Nadu's existing percentage of seats, 7.18 per cent of the total, must not be reduced under any circumstances. It was accepted by the CM.

However, after the meeting, Jayakumar said that the DMK hurriedly convened the meeting to project itself as the state's only saviour.

"Since it takes three years to complete the delimitation exercise, why this hurry in convening the all-party meeting? A drama has been enacted today to create an impression that the DMK is the only saviour for protecting the rights of Tamil Nadu. The DMK and the CM have no locus standi to speak about the rights of Tamil Nadu as the party had sacrificed the rights of the state on many issues in the past," he said.