Delimitation meeting by DMK a 'drama' to hide issues including corruption: Palaniswami

Salem/Chennai: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Sunday attacked Chief Minister M K Stalin over the ruling DMK-convened meeting on delimitation here, saying it was a 'drama,' enacted by the CM to divert attention from issues including rampant corruption and 'deteriorating' law and order situation.

People were agitated over a number of issues including hike in property tax, water tax and power tariff among others over four years of DMK rule, the Leader of Opposition told reporters in Salem.

"Law and order has collapsed, there is skyrocketing inflation, power tariff has been hiked, property tax and water tax have been increased while property guideline value has been revised, affecting people severely. To hide these big issues that have happened over the four years since the DMK came to power, the CM has enacted this drama," Palaniswami said.

The Parliamentary delimitation should be discussed in the Parliament.

"There is rampant corruption, law and order has collapsed, people are agitated and yesterday's meeting was aimed at diverting these," he alleged.

Earlier, AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan said the Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting chaired by Stalin and attended by CMs of others states including Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan and A Revanth Reddy of Telangana on Saturday, "has left an impression that it is a staged drama." The invitation letter sent out by Stalin states he was not against delimitation, but that the exercise would curtail Tamil Nadu's number of MPs, he said.

"On the other hand, inside Tamil Nadu, in every nook and corner DMK is trying to say it loud that the delimitation exercise itself is wrong. So which one is true? Stalin doesn't want delimitation, or if delimitation happens, what is the solution," he told PTI Videos.

"We from AIADMK propose that the proportion of 7.18 per cent that Tamil Nadu has right now with respect to MPs should not change which was intentionally omitted by DMK in its resolution that was passed in the all-party meeting called earlier (here). " "So it clearly leaves an impression to everyone in Tamil Nadu that the DMK is desperate to stick on to a narrative of delimitation which they want to carry forward to the 2026 Assembly elections by hiding all their incompetencies and failures of this government which is stinking deep in corruption," he claimed.

The law and order was in shambles.

"So, the delimitation exercise for DMK is a big drama," he said.

Stalin has been claiming that delimitation based on population would result in a decrease in Lok Sabha seats for south Indian states. The meeting on Saturday had urged to extend the freeze on Parliamentary constituencies, based on the 1971 Census population, by another 25 years.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said the delimitation done on pro rata basis will not affect south Indian states.