The Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) will attend the meeting on delimitation called by Tamil Nadu chief minister M. K. Stalin in Chennai on March 22, sources said.

Stalin has called a joint action committee meeting to mobilise the support of like-minded parties against the population-based delimitation exercise.

Naveen gave his consent to attend the meeting after a two-member DMK delegation comprising Lok Sabha member and former chief minister Dayanidhi Maran and Tamil Nadu industries minister T. R. B. Rajaa called on Naveen Patnaik at Naveen Niwas on Tuesday and conveyed Stalin’s message on the possibility of a proposed delimitation exercise hitting the southern states and some other states of the country hard.

After meeting Naveen, Maran told the reporters, “Naveen Patnaik shares our concern and fear that unfair delimitations will not be good for our states. There are seven states — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Punjab — that will be directly hit by the proposed delimitation. Our share will be reduced while the northern states’ shares will go up.”

He said, “The states that are going to be affected are the developing states, which controlled their population and now they are being made to pay the price for it. Naveenji has confirmed that he will definitely attend the meet and share his views. He will fight along with us.”

BJD vice president, Debi Prasad Mishra told reporters: “During the meeting with the Tamil Nadu delegation, Naveen has expressed his concern and said whatever needs to be done for the interest of the state will be done. Naveen has given his consent to attend the meeting called by Tamil Nadu chief minister M. K. Stalin.”

Senior BJD leader and former minister Sanjay Dasburma said, “Our state, like some other states, will be hit by the delimitation exercise.”

Sources said that BJD will soon conduct a meeting to discuss the pros and cons of delimitation and how it might impact Odisha. The delimitation exercise is set to begin in 2026.

However, Tamil Nadu chief minister M. K. Stalin opposed the move and said the progressive states like Tamil Nadu, which have succeeded in keeping their population in check using family planning, are likely to be hit and lose seats if delimitation is carried out on the basis
of population.

Stalin reached out to former chief ministers, chief ministers and eminent leaders of various states to oppose the move. He was of the view that the representation in Parliament will also be reduced to 20 per cent from the existing 26 per cent reservation, giving a benefit to the BJP which is mostly confined to northern states.

The two-member DMK delegation, Maran and T. R. B. Rajaa also met Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Bhakta Charan Das and sought his support.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh drew attention to an analysis done in 2019 by Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson for the Washington-based think tank, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on what happens to the distribution of seats if the estimated population of 2026 is used.

As per this assessment, all five southern states will lose seats as will Bengal, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (taken together) stand to lose eight seats each while Bengal will be down four seats, Odisha three, Karnataka two and Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand one each.

The states that will gain are: Uttar Pradesh (11), Bihar (10), Rajasthan (6), Madhya Pradesh (4), Jharkhand (1), Haryana (1), Gujarat (1), Delhi (1), and Chhattisgarh (1). Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra will see no change.