DMK need not worry about us: MP Karti Chidambaram

Sivaganga MP Karti Chidambaram retorted to MP Kanimozhi, stating that the DMK need not worry about them. 

Addressing reporters in Manamadurai on Sunday, he was asked about Ms. Kanimozhi’s remark that Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay called the delimitation meeting merely to avoid upsetting Congress by holding an all-party meeting over the Cauvery dispute. Rejecting the notion, he stated, “The DMK does not need to lose sleep over our feelings. Our sole concern is protecting Tamil Nadu’s parliamentary representation.” 

Further, speaking on the all-party meeting, he said, “An open discussion regarding constituency delimitation took place in the meeting chaired by the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister and ministers stated their respective stances.” 

The existing 543 Lok Sabha constituencies must be protected. If constituencies were drawn based on population, the parliamentary representation of southern states would decrease, he added.  

“The suggestion of increasing seats by 50 percent for all States instead of using population as a criterion is also being put forward. However, that too would not be favourable to Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Karti Chidambaram observed.  

Further, if there were more than 800 MPs, the functioning of Parliament would also be affected. Even now, adequate time was not available to speak in Parliament, he remarked. 

If anyone supports delimitation, it could only be considered as compromising Tamil Nadu’s rights, he stated.  

During delimitation, boundaries of constituencies would be altered, he said, adding that there was a possibility that gerrymandering might take place by combining politically favourable areas into a single constituency and fragmenting non-voting areas into multiple constituencies. 

“In the United States, even though the population has increased, the number of seats in the House of Representatives has not been increased. Former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee protected the count of 543 keeping the interests of the southern States in mind. Any formula against Tamil Nadu’s rights cannot be accepted,” he said.