Chennai (PTI): The claims made by BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai over Parliamentary delimitation not affecting the southern states do not matter and it is the words of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister that count, Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters here before departing for Bengaluru, the Karnataka Congress chief also took a jibe at Annamalai, saying he was "being loyal to the party" and not to Tamil Nadu.

"Annamalai is not important here, it is important what the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and the Home Minister (Amit Shah) are conveying to the country. Poor Annamalai doesn't know anything," he said.

"He is just doing his job, he wanted to show more loyalty to his party.... he is not showing loyalty to his state, he is showing loyalty to his party," Shivakumar charged.

The Deputy CM was here to attend the 'Fair Delimitation' meeting convened by DMK President and TN Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday.

Stalin has been claiming that delimitation based on population would result in a decrease in Lok Sabha seats for south Indian states. The meeting on Saturday had urged to extend the freeze on Parliamentary constituencies, based on the 1971 Census population, by another 25 years.

Amit Shah had earlier said the delimitation done on pro rata basis will not affect south Indian states. Annamalai had also been maintaining the same and reiterated it on Saturday as well.

Shivakumar further said Stalin had taken into 'confidence' over 50 political parties in the state earlier, apparently referring to an all-party meet in the state on delimitation and lauded him for doing a "good job" on the matter.

 

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New Delhi (PTI): Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday took a swipe at the "failed" US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan with an Urdu couplet, saying only god knows now what will happen.

"Ab kya hoga, ye rab jane; Na woh mane, na ye mane (only god knows what will happen now as both sides did not agree)," Tharoor said on X, tagging a post-talks video clip of US Vice President J D Vance, who led the American delegation at the negotiations in Islamabad.

The United States and Iran failed to reach a peace deal at their historic 21-hour talks in Pakistan, leaving the fate of a tenuous two-week ceasefire in doubt, with both sides attempting to hold each other responsible for the collapse of the negotiations.

Vance said the Iranian side did not accept Washington's terms for ending the war even as the US presented its "final and best offer".

Hours after the talks collapsed, US President Donald Trump said on social media that the negotiations with Tehran failed as "Iran is unwilling to give up its nuclear ambitions".

Trump said the US Navy will actively interdict any vessel in international waters found to have paid tolls to Iran for transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route that handles roughly 20 per cent of global oil and LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas).

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Iranian negotiation team, said it is for the US to decide whether it can "earn our trust or not".

The Iranian foreign ministry, without elaborating, said the US side resorted to "excessive" and "illegal demands".

The failure to reach an agreement has dimmed the prospect of reopening the Strait of Hormuz to stabilise the global energy marke