A heated debate was witnessed in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Friday after Minister for Public Works Aadhav Arjuna questioned the Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin whether the DMK MPs would attend the critical meeting to present a united front over the delimitation issue.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay will chair a high-level consultation meeting with members of Parliament from the state on August 8 to discuss the Centre's proposed constituency delimitation exercise and its potential impact on the state.
Speaking during the assembly proceedings, Arjuna described delimitation as a "grave challenge" on par with inter-state river water disputes.
Highlighting the urgency of safeguarding the state's political voice, the minister announced that the Chief Minister has convened a high-level consultative meeting with Members of Parliament across all political parties to formulate a unified strategy.
Addressing DMK leader Udhayanidhi, the minister asked whether his party's MPs would attend the meeting.
The debate briefly grew heated after the minister made some references, prompting the Speaker JCD Prabhakar to intervene and expunge the statements from the official record, directing the discussion back to the explicit question of participation.
Responding to the query, Udhayanidhi emphasised his party's long-standing opposition to the proposed delimitation framework.
He noted that his party was among the first in the country to raise alarms over the issue, having previously hosted a summit of southern Chief Ministers in Chennai to build consensus against any reduction in regional representation.
Regarding attendance at the Chief Minister's convened meeting, Udhayanidhi stated that his party leader M K Stalin would consult internally before taking a final decision.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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