Sidda supports Stalin's march 22 meeting

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has thrown his weight behind his TN counterpart MK Stalin's initiative to bring all like-minded political parties together on the issue of delimitation of constituencies. On his behalf, deputy CM DK Shivakumar will attend the joint action committee meeting Stalin has called in Chennai on March 22.

The Congress CM said in a letter to Stalin on Thursday that the latter's March 7 letter "raises very important issues of autonomy of states which have serious implications on the principles governing our polity". He further said, "Particularly the issues of delimitation of the parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on new population benchmarks. These issues have to be discussed at length by the like-minded states."

Siddaramaiah said he wished to participate in the meeting but was not able to do so in view of his commitments and that Shivakumar would represent Karnataka. "We remain committed to protecting federal principles and the rights of states," he posted on X. Congress and DMK are part of the INDIA bloc, the grouping that fought BJP-led alliance in the Lok Sabha elections.