Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay is flanked by his Cabinet colleagues N. Anand (left) and Aadhav Arjuna during their meeting on delimitation with Tamil Nadu MPs in Chennai on August 8, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
At a time when the State has been animatedly deliberating on the Cauvery issue, on August 6, 2026, Chief Minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president C. Joseph Vijay announced a meeting for parliamentarians in Chennai on August 8 to discuss the possible impacts of the proposed Delimitation Bill on the State.Mr. Vijay’s initiative caught the Opposition, especially the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), off guard. In fact, on August 6, news had spread that the DMK might consider providing support to the proposed Bill if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government agreed to three of its demands — the extension of a constitutional freeze on seats based on the 1971 Census for 25 more years, the introduction of a 50% increase in the Lok Sabha seats for all the States, and the insertion of a Schedule indicating the number of seats for each State.Change of positionFour months ago, when the campaign for the Assembly elections was at its peak in Tamil Nadu, the Dravidian major, a long-standing vociferous critic of the proposed delimitation, had staged dramatic scenes as its president and then Chief Minister M.K. Stalin burnt a copy of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill.
