Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday has assured on delimitation that the Southern States will not lose a single parliamentary seat. His comment comes a day after Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin had announced an all- party meeting in the state for a “political consensus” on delimitation exercise of Center, which is like a “sword hanging over the head of South India.”

Amit Shah headed to Tamil Nadu for the inauguration of BJP party offices at Coimbatore, Tiruvannamalai and Ramanathapuram. While addressing the party workers he said, “Today, a meeting will be held to ensure the South does not suffer on account of delimitation. The public in Tamil Nadu is disturbed. This is why the Tamil Nadu CM (MK Stalin) and his son (Udayanidhi Stalin) are trying to distract the public. Mr. Stalin, the Modi government had made it clear in the Lok Sabha that after delimitation, on pro rata basis, not a single seat will be reduced in any southern state. And I want to reassure the public of South India that Modi ji has kept your interest in mind to make sure that not even one seat is reduced pro rata. And whatever increase is there, the southern states will get a fair share, there is no reason to doubt this.”

With these statements, the Home Minister was directly responding to MK Stalin’s remarks where he had remarked that due to the delimitation exercise of the Center, Tamil Nadu could lose up to 8 of its 39 Lok Sabha constituencies, reducing to 31 only. Stalin said that he feared of diminished representation and rights of Tamil Nadu.

The Home Minister went over to criticize Stalin of lying to the Tamil masses, diverting their attention to hide his failures. He said, “You are lying to Tamil people and misleading them with false claims about delimitation. I demand your reply, why are you making these false claims?”

Going beyond delimitation, Shah attacked the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government in Tamil Nadu citing issues of corruption, law and order as well as governance. He accused the party leaders of money laundering, sand mining, and involvement in various scams such as the 2G scandal. He said, “DMK is one party with a master’s degree in corruption. Tamil Nadu’s law and order standards are going low compared to the other states.”

He added further, “Time has come, DMK’s anti-people, anti-national government should be sent out of power. This NDA government we will establish here should be a new beginning. All separatist, divisive ideologies should be eliminated. All anti-national forces should be destroyed here.”