Chennai/IBNS: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday reached out to seven of his counterparts, including Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Punjab's Bhagwant Mann, and BJP-ruled Odisha's Mohan Chandra Majhi, to join a 'joint action committee' of political parties to voice against the delimitation exercise proposed by the Centre.

He has also asked Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan, Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Telangana's Revanth Reddy, Andhra Pradesh's Chandrababu Naidu, as well as senior politicians from non-ruling parties and the BJP in each of these states, to attend a meeting in Chennai on March 22 "to chart a collective course".

"Delimitation is a blatant assault on federalism, punishing states that ensured population control by stripping away our rightful voice in Parliament. We will not allow this democratic injustice!" he said on X.

Ahead of an election in Tamil Nadu next year, Stalin and his government have been vociferously protesting against the Centre's 'Hindi imposition' and delimitation.

He has argued that none of the moves are necessary and would rather lead to an attack on the federal nature of the Constitution and on the Tamil people and language.

Refuting both charges, the Centre countered the 'imposition' claims by saying the new National Education Policy and the three-language formula do not force any student to study Hindi.

It deflected the criticism of delimitation by insisting the southern states will not be disadvantaged.

Stalin writes to CMs:

In his letter to Opposition party CMs, he pointed out that delimitation exercises after 1976 had been put on hold by a 2002 amendment, that was passed during the term of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He said changes to the overall number of Lok Sabha seats - now 543 - were proposed to remain frozen till at least 2026.

However, the Centre's plan for a delimitation now, with current data, means states that have controlled population could face a reduction in the number of Lok Sabha seats allotted, while others, including BJP-ruled states in the north, will get more due to vastly increased populations.

"Delimitation math is simple and sobering. Reports suggest the exercise is being considered based on population (and) with two potential approaches. In the first case, the existing 543 seats will be redistributed. In the second, the total number could be increased beyond 800."

"In both scenarios, states that have successfully implemented population control measures stand to lose significantly if the exercise is based on post-2026 population levels," Stalin wrote.