Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 22 (ANI): Tamil Nadu BJP held a protest with black flags against the MK Stalin-led DMK government, accusing it of giving the rights of Tamil Nadu to other states.

The BJP leaders, led by state party chief K Annamalai showed black flags and placards against the Stalin government. They also showed black flags to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar over the issue of the Mekdatu project.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar arrived in Chennai on Saturday morning to attend the first meeting on delimitation on behalf of the Karnataka government.

Annamalai also slammed Chief Minister Stalin for doing 'drama' on delimitation, saying there is 'no problem' with the proposed exercise.

Speaking to reporters, Annamalai said that the state of Tamil Nadu has various issues with the neighbouring states, but Chief Minister Stalin hasn't raised them on any occasion.

'Our state has various issues with neighbouring states. With Kerala, we have Mullaperiyar Dam issue...Karnataka government has opposed Metro line towards Hosur from Karnataka border. On various occasions, our CM didn't raise these issues when he visited neighbouring states. But today, he has called all CMs and is doing drama on delimitation, which is not even a problem at all,' he said.

'Across Tamil Nadu, BJP is holding protest by holding black flags against DMK, for giving up our rights to other States,' the state BJP chief added.

Leaders from several opposition parties arrived in Chennai to attend the 1st Joint Action Committee Meeting on the issue of delimitation, as the MK Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government aims to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre over the issue citing an attack on federalism.

The meeting of Chief Ministers and leaders of various states to discuss the issue of delimitation has been called by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin in Chennai today.

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao, Odisha Congress President Bhakta Charan Das and Biju Janata Dal leader Sanjay Kumar Das Burma will be attending the meeting.

The MK Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government has locked horns with the Central government over the three-language formula proposed in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the delimitation exercise.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin had called an all-party meeting to discuss the proposed delimitation's impact on the state, which was boycotted by the BJP.

Ahead of the meeting, Chief Minister Stalin stated that today will be remembered as a pivotal moment in Indian history when the states united to safeguard the nation's federal structure by ensuring 'fair delimitation'.

Taking to a social media post on X, Stalin wrote, 'Today will be etched in history as the day when states that have contributed to our nation's development came together to safeguard its federal structure by ensuring #FairDelimitation. I warmly welcome all Chief Ministers and political leaders to this meeting, united in our commitment to #FairDelimitation.' (ANI)