Tamil Nadu will “never yield” to the Union government and remain out of New Delhi’s control, Chief Minister MK Stalin was quoted as saying by ANI on Friday.

“Union minister Amit Shah says that in 2026 they [National Democratic Alliance] will form government [in the state],” Stalin said. “I am challenging and saying to him that Tamil Nadu will never yield to Delhi’s administration. That much uniqueness we have.”

The state is expected to head for Assembly elections in April or May 2026.

Tamil Nadu’s main Opposition party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and the Bharatiya Janata Party have said that they will contest the 2026 polls in an alliance.

Stalin’s statement came amid strained ties between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu and the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre on several issues such as the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and the National Education Policy.

The chief minister asked the Union home minister on Friday if he could assure Tamil Nadu residents that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test will be scrapped in the state and Hindi would not be imposed.

“Can you give your word that delimitation would not reduce seats [of Tamil Nadu in parliamentary elections],” added Stalin. “If we are diverting, why didn’t you give a proper response to the Tamil Nadu people.”

This came days after he announced the setting up of a high-level committee to review the constitutional and legal provisions relating to the relationship between the Union government and the states.

The mandate of the committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph, would include the review of constitutional provisions, laws and policies on Centre-state relations and recommending ways to restore subjects moved from the State List of the Constitution to the Concurrent List, Stalin had said on Tuesday.

He had added that the committee would also propose measures for states to overcome administrative challenges and suggest reforms to ensure their maximum autonomy without compromising the unity and integrity of the nation.

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NEET in Tamil Nadu

In September 2021, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a bill seeking to exempt students in the state from NEET, which is a qualifying test for undergraduate courses in medical and dental colleges across India. It is conducted by the National Testing Agency.

The bill proposed that admission of students to medical courses be carried out based on Class 12 examination results.

The state has been opposing the examination on the grounds that the entrance test, based on a Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus, harms the prospects of state board students who follow a different curriculum.

The governor declined to give his assent to the bill after which the Assembly adopted the bill again in February 2022. The bill was then sent to President Droupadi Murmu as education is a subject on the Concurrent List. Stalin had told the Assembly on April 4 that Murmu had withheld assent to the bill.

NEP row

The latest National Education Policy has retained the three-language formula, which refers to teaching students English, Hindi and the native language of a state. It was introduced in the first National Education Policy in 1968.

Tamil Nadu has repeatedly opposed the three-language formula in the National Education Policy. The state government said it will not change its decades-old two-language policy of teaching students Tamil and English.

On Tuesday, Stalin said that since the Tamil Nadu government had rejected the three-language formula, “the Centre has withheld around Rs 2,500 crore funds under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, thereby betraying the interests of our students”.

The Samagra Shiksha scheme, implemented in 2018, is an initiative through which the Union government provides support for elementary and secondary school education.

Earlier this month, the Union education ministry told Parliament that Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal received no funds from the Centre under the Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2024-’25.

The halt in funding to the three states comes against the backdrop of them refusing to comply with the PM Schools for Rising India scheme.

The centrally-sponsored scheme aims to upgrade the infrastructure of schools managed by central, state or regional bodies. However, to avail the scheme’s benefits, state governments must first sign a memorandum of understanding with the Centre to implement the 2020 National Education Policy.

On delimitation

Delimitation is the process of fixing the boundaries of electoral constituencies. Article 82 of the Constitution states that after every census is completed, the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to each state must be adjusted based on changes in their population.

The composition of the current Lok Sabha is based on the 1971 census. According to the 84th Amendment Act of 2001, the constituency boundaries were frozen until the first census after 2026, which would be due in 2031.

However, southern states have expressed concern that population-based delimitation could give an undue advantage to northern and central states in the Lok Sabha.

Stalin claimed on Tuesday that Tamil Nadu was “being penalised” in the name of delimitation despite taking consistent efforts in controlling population growth through awareness campaigns.