Chennai: Ahead of the 2026 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader M.K. Stalin is intensifying his campaign against the proposed delimitation exercise, rallying all 40 registered political parties in the state to forge a united stand under his leadership.
Stalin has extended invitations to all parties for a crucial meeting on 5 March, transcending political and ideological divides, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies, and the newly formed Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) led by actor-turned-politician Vijay.
Several parties, including the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and TVK, have confirmed participation in the all-party meet at the Secretariat Wednesday, with the exception of BJP, Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) and Tamil Maanila Congress.
AIADMK views it as an important issue for the entire state, and not just the DMK. The party’s IT wing president Kovai Sathyan told ThePrint that the party always stands for the rights of the state and its people, irrespective of how the issue is raised.
“As a Dravidian party, AIADMK is against the actions of the Union government that affect Tamil Nadu’s rights. We do not look at it as a meeting organised by the DMK, but as one to protect the rights and interests of the state,” Sathyan said.
However, according to political experts, safeguarding Tamil Nadu’s interests will serve as the top agenda for the political parties with respect to the 2026 polls.
Political analyst Sathiya Moorthy told ThePrint that the agenda of the Dravidian parties, especially DMK, has previously been to oppose the Hindutva ideology, which is now losing its momentum on the electoral front as they have contested the past three elections with the same strategy.
“Now state’s rights will be the top issue for the next assembly election. The present generation may not know the history of the language protests and the fight for Tamil Nadu’s rights that began as early as the 1950s. So, this will help the DMK in strengthening its political ideology and endorsing it among the youth,” Moorthy said.
Nevertheless, BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit has accused the DMK government of creating a distraction from its failures by calling for an all-party meeting.
Tamil Nadu BJP vice president Narayanan Thirupathy said that such a meeting is not necessary as Union Minister Amit Shah has already clarified that the delimitation process will be done on a pro-rata basis.
“Stalin is trying to divert people’s attention from the real issues by bringing up these matters. He is trying to hide his government’s failures in the last four years,” Narayanan said.
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Where various parties stand
On 25 February, announcing the state cabinet’s decision to convene an all-party meeting at the secretariat in Chennai on 5 March, Chief Minister Stalin had said that the state had been compelled to wage a battle for its rights.
For those few parties, including BJP and its allies, who had turn down his invitation to participate in the meeting, Stalin appealed to them one more time to set aside the political differences and join in for the welfare of the state.
Noting that he had already sent the invitations via registered post, he said at a public event in Nagapattinam Monday, “I stand before the people now to invite you all once again to attend the meeting. Please set aside the political differences and participate in the meeting. This is about Tamil Nadu’s rights. Do not let go of the interests of our future generations for selfish reasons.”
While DMK allies and AIADMK had already given a green signal, speculations were rife about the newer parties, TVK and NTK.
Although NTK, a Tamil nationalist party led by Seeman, has opposed the proposed delimitation, they have decided to boycott the meeting. The party’s youth wing coordinator Idumbavanam Karthik said that the party has no confidence in DMK’s demand.
“We have seen DMK’s politics for long and they have always compromised on the state’s autonomy and language issues. So, we have decided to boycott the meeting, but we will continue to fight against the delimitation process individually,” Karthik said.
TVK has decided to participate in the meeting since it would be its first ever all-party meet. “However, Vijay will not be present at the meeting. General secretary N. Anand will be participating and will register our take against delimitation,” a senior TVK leader told ThePrint.
Vijay had declared DMK as its political enemy and BJP as its ideological enemy upon TVK’s inception. Asked about TVK’s intention to participate in the meeting called by the DMK, the senior leader said that the state’s autonomy is part of their party’s ideology, too.
“We never said DMK is our ideological enemy. We do not have differences in ideology, but the way of following and implementing it is where we have differences. As far as delimitation is concerned, we thought it is our duty as well to be in solidarity with the state government,” the senior leader said.
Apart from BJP and NTK, G.K. Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress has also decided to boycott the meeting. Vasan told ThePrint that the meeting is unwanted and unwarranted since the Union government has already clarified that they would not reduce the number of constituencies.
“The agenda of the meeting is to portray DMK as the strongest party and that they will be able to bring in people under their fold, when they talk about the state’s rights. We do not want to fall for it,” he said.
Political experts say that Stalin is projecting delimitation as a Centre-state issue, rather than just DMK’s problem.
G Chandrasekaran, assistant professor at Centre for South East Asian Studies, said that Stalin is looking at every possible reason to unite all the political parties in the state under one umbrella against the Union government.
“This is not new for DMK. Its tradition has been to unite the people and political parties in the state to fight for Tamil Nadu’s rights against the Union government. There was no such necessity all these years. After a long time, DMK has become so aggressive on the issue of state rights, particularly education policy and delimitation,” Chandrasekaran said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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