Stalin vs BJP: Why Congress, INDIA bloc are in a fix over delimitation, Hindi ‘imposition’ row

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin is on a warpath with the BJP-led NDA government. The two major issues at the center of the now almost everyday war of words are delimitation and the Hindi “imposition” row concerning the

National Education Policy

(NEP).
On delimitation, where Stalin claims that the representation of the South in the Lok Sabha would be reduced, he has managed to garner strong support.

Despite Amit Shah’s assurance that the southern states will not lose a single Lok Sabha seat, the chief ministers of two Congress-ruled states — Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy — have united with Stalin to attack the BJP-led Centre on delimitation.

At a recent all-party meeting, Stalin also secured the support of the main opposition AIADMK, Congress, and Left parties, as well as actor-politician Vijay’s TVK and Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM). The meeting was boycotted by the BJP, Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), and former union minister GK Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar).
During the meeting, Stalin also asserted that the 1971 population data should be the basis for delimitation of Lok Sabha seats for 30 years from 2026, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make an assurance in Parliament.
In what maybe seen as a win for Stalin, BJP’s ally, PMK, also voiced concerns on Thursday that Tamil Nadu’s representation in Parliament could decline due to delimitation.
With assembly elections due next year, Stalin has intensified his attacks on the NDA government on another front with

three-language policy

. The Tamil Nadu government has strongly opposed implementing the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, raising concerns over the “three-language formula” and alleging that the Centre is attempting to “impose” Hindi.
However, while Congress leaders in the South have supported Stalin’s stance, the party’s central leadership has so far maintained a neutral stance on the issue.
With Bihar assembly elections just months away, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Congress seems to have adopted a carefully balanced approach. This is likely because Congress still holds influence in the South. Among the three Congress-ruled states, two — Telangana and Karnataka — are in the South. The party’s 99-seat Lok Sabha win was largely powered by southern states, where it won a total of 42 seats:

To keep the party’s stance in balance, Manickam Tagore, Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar and party whip in Lok Sabha, recently stated: “Our party respects all languages, and we are against all kinds of language imposition. Hindi can be learned by choice but not by imposition.”
Other key INDIA bloc allies, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Jammu and Kashmir’s National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, have remained silent on both issues.
On NEP, all state governments except Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal have adopted and implemented the policy. However, Bengal CM and INDIA bloc ally Mamata Banerjee has also refrained from making any public statements in support of Stalin.
Instead, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief has shifted focus and is now trying to corner the NDA government and the Election Commission, alleging voter list manipulation.
The Parliament session after Lok Sabha elections saw the INDIA bloc divided with their individual agendas (Congress on the Adani issue, Samajwadi Party on Sambhal violence) as they tried to corner the NDA government. With TMC already announcing that it will raise the issue of voter ID number duplication during the upcoming session starting from March 10, it will be interesting to see if the INDIA bloc finds a common ground to carry out coordinated attack this time.