Chennai, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday led the deliberations at the meeting of southern states’ chief ministers at Kovalam near here, where Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar raised the delimitation issue while CMs C Joseph Vijay and V D Satheesan had a “key interaction.”
“We welcome the assurance that no southern state will lose seats. But representation is not only about numbers. In his remarks, Shivakumar urged the Southern Zonal Council to adopt a resolution calling on the Union government to honour the 1971 census as the basis for delimitation, retain the Lok Sabha’s existing strength of 543 seats for the next 25 years and accommodate women’s reservation within these existing seats.
It is about weight, and about voice,” he said. Earlier reporting noted: On Wednesday night, CM Vijay called on Shah which was described as “courtesy visit” by officials and the first after he assumed office as the chief minister.
Earlier reporting noted: The Union Home Minister shared a photograph of Vijay meeting him. Earlier reporting noted: TN CM calls on Amit Shah, meeting of southern CMs to deliberate key issues Chennai, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of the meeting of chief ministers of southern states to be held near here on Thursday and it will deliberate important inter-state and national issues, official sources said.
Let me assure you, every drop of water from the Mekedatu project will help farmers in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. P K Kunhalikutty was also present.”
Southern states had responded to the country’s call for population stabilisation with discipline and success, and they should not be penalised for that achievement during the delimitation exercise, he said. “While walking to the meeting, senior leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu ji told me that we need to solve the Cauvery water issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Help us help you,” he said. Meanwhile, in a social media post, Shivakumar, referring to the key meeting, said it was an opportunity to engage with the chief ministers, their deputies, ministers and senior officials from across the southern region. Sharing photographs of the interaction on social media platform X, Satheesan said in a post, “On the sidelines of the Southern Zonal Council meeting in Mahabalipuram , Chennai, had a key interaction with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
Against the background of Cauvery river water sharing issue and the Mekedatu dam row, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay, who was seated next to his Karnataka counterpart Shivakumar, spoke to him at the 31st meeting of the Southern Zonal Council.
