DK Shivakumar Puts Annamalai In His Place

The Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar put the Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai in his place, dubbing him an unimportant person who had no knowledge of the threat that delimitation could pose to the southern states. The local BJP had arranged for black flags to be shown at all major cities in Tamil Nadu on the day that Stalin held his summit against delimitation at a deluxe hotel in Chennai. It was the local BJP’s point that Shivakumar, whose state refuses to give Tamil Nadu a just share of Cauvery water, and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan who does not talk to Tamil Nadu on important issues like the Mullaperiyar dam, its maintenance and permissible height, should not be state guests in Chennai. Shivakumar made the point about Annamalai’s view of delimitation as an irrelevant subject being unimportant because what counts is what the Prime Minister and the Home Minister think of it. DKS said he could understand Annamalai being loyal to his party, but he seems not to understand what could happen to his own state of Tamil Nadu if the delimitation proposal goes through. If proportional representation according to population is done after the next census, UP could have as many as 137 seats in the Lok Sabha compared to 80 now whereas Tamil Nadu may end up getting four more seats than its current 39.