Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin (leader of the DMK, the regional party governing India's southernmost mainland state) has intensified his opposition to the central government's delimitation exercise, demanding constitutional guarantees that southern states retain their current share of parliamentary seats for at least 30 years. Stalin has called for a special Parliament session in early June to enshrine such protections, warning that the DMK "will not stand by and watch any attempt that places the rights of the southern states at stake while handing greater power to the north." He has also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP government of pushing the delimitation agenda as a distraction from a worsening cooking gas shortage linked to the ongoing West Asia conflict, which he says has forced restaurant closures and job losses across the country.