United States of South India—Stalin’s push against delimitation goes beyond Tamil Nadu politics

The Joint Action Committee that Stalin has proposed isn’t just symbolic. It could become a rallying point for a larger North Vs South political showdown over delimitation.

Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin | @mkstalin/X

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has often, in a lighter vein, urged people in the state to have more children to counter the looming threat of reduced representation in national politics due to delimitation. Sometimes, people laugh it off; other times, it makes headlines.

Regardless of Stalin’s playful remarks, one thing is clear—delimitation is central to his ideology and politics, especially with the state heading for Assembly election next year.

Amid an ongoing war of words with the Union government over the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Stalin has opened another front with the Centre. By bundling the delimitation issue with the language war, the DMK leader is trying to position himself as the voice of the South. A North Vs South battle could play big in national politics, which is why delimitation is ThePrint Newsmaker of the Week.

“Delimitation is a sword dangling over the southern states,” Stalin said on 25 February, after a state cabinet meeting.

Stalin is trying to build support on the issue, not just within Tamil Nadu but across opposition-ruled states. After an all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu, he wrote to the chief ministers of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, and Punjab, urging them to join forces against delimitation. He has invited them to a meeting in Chennai on 22 March.

The concern is that the delimitation proposed for 2026 will reshape the country’s power map, reducing the political might of southern states at the Centre. It’s a shared concern across political parties, not just in Tamil Nadu but in other southern states that have been able to contain their populations.

But with Assembly polls in 2026, political commentators see Stalin’s push as a strategic move to build an advantage for himself and his party by taking the lead. The DMK has won three  consecutive major elections—the 2019 Lok Sabha, the 2021 Assembly election, and the 2024 Lok Sabha election. In all three, the campaign centred on opposing the BJP’s Hindutva agenda in Tamil Nadu.

For 2026, however, Stalin needs a new rallying point to break the state’s pattern of alternating power between the two main Dravidian players—the DMK and AIADMK. His campaign against delimitation and the Centre’s push for a three-language policy has emerged as that new focal point. Stalin even challenged the BJP to contest the 2026 Assembly election with the three-language formula as its core agenda.

🎯 "The tree may prefer calm, but the wind will not subside." It was the Union Education Minister who provoked us to write this series of letters when we were simply doing our job. He forgot his place and dared to threaten an entire state to accept #HindiImposition, and now he… pic.twitter.com/pePfCnk8BS

— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) March 7, 2025

“This isn’t just about numbers—it’s about justice,” Stalin told reporters in Chennai after a State cabinet meeting.

A North vs South battle under Stalin

Every few decades, political representation and boundaries are redrawn based on population—which simply means, more people, more seats. The last delimitation happened in 1976, based on the 1971 census.

When the next exercise was due in 2001, it was frozen until 2026 to reward states that had slowed population growth. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka took this seriously, and ensured small families.

But once the freeze lifts and the next census kicks in, the South could lose seats while the North gains more. Stalin sees this as unjust and does not want to fight the battle alone.

“Why should Tamil Nadu and the South be punished for doing what the country asked? We controlled our population, built our economy, and now they want to take our voice away?” he said at a meeting in Nagapattinam.

His words won hearts even of political rivals, AIADMK leader D Jayakumar said, “This isn’t politics—it’s about saving our future.” Such unity is rare in a state where the DMK and AIADMK usually lock horns.

Stalin didn’t just unite Tamil Nadu’s political parties, but he has also seemingly succeeded in his bold plan of teaming up with Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh in search for a better deal from the Centre.

The Joint Action Committee Stalin proposed, comprising MPs and party representatives from southern states, isn’t just a talking point. It may become a rallying point for a larger North Vs South political showdown over delimitation.

The DMK’s opposition to population-based delimitation is decades old. In 1967, DMK founder and former Chief Minister CN Annadurai warned Delhi, “Numbers alone cannot decide a nation’s fate. If the South’s efforts are ignored, India’s unity will crack.” In 2008, Stalin’s father and DMK leader M Karunanidhi wrote to the Prime Minister, arguing that states meeting national goals like population control should not lose political power.

Language front: Hindi, Tamil, and a divide

While rallying southern states against delimitation, Stalin is also fighting Hindi imposition and the three-language formula proposed in the NEP 2020.

The Tamil Nadu CM has repeatedly questioned the non-establishment of an Uttar Bharat Tamil Prachar Sabha in North India by successive governments in Delhi.

Meanwhile, the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, established in 1918 in Tamil Nadu, thrives, with over 7.7 lakh people voluntarily learning Hindi in 2017 alone.

Political analyst Professor Ramu Manivannan has questioned the non-inclusion of Tamil in northern school curriculums even as Hindi is allegedly imposed in Tamil Nadu. Apart from the Prachar Sabha, Manivannan said, many people voluntarily take spoken Hindi classes out of their academic studies, which is not officially recorded anywhere.

Stalin’s ambition to bring in a united opposition front could stumble against the complex coalition politics. While Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP in Andhra Pradesh is in NDA, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is not ready to join hands with the Congress and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP in Punjab is fighting against the Congress. These cracks within the opposition camp might dilute the cohesion needed to challenge Delhi effectively.

Will Stalin’s South-first coalition hold strong, or will political fractures weaken the fight against delimitation?

Views are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)