Panjab & Southern States Oppose Delimitation in Parliament

April

2026

The Indian union government has convened a three-day special session beginning 16 Apr to amend the Constitution so that the Women’s Reservation Law which reserves 33% seats for women and the delimitation exercise can be carried out. The government wants both changes to be implemented on the basis of the 2011 census data in the 2029 Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) election. Delimitation is a binding process of redrawing Lok Sabha and State Assembly boundaries to bring population parity among them. The exercise has been suspended since 1976 as it is deemed controversial which has resulted in vast unevenness in numbers of voters among constituencies. India's southern states argue delimitation unfairly penalizes regions like Tamil Nadu and Kerala that have successfully controlled population growth in the last few decades. Panjab Indian National Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said Panjab seats will go up from 13 to 20 but still place the state at great disadvantage in the Parliament and sought an all-party consensus on the issue. Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said, ‘Under the proposed expansion, while every state may see an increase, the rate and scale of increase clearly favor Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-dominated states. Uttar Pradesh is expected to go from 80 to 120 seats, Maharashtra from 48 to 72, Bihar from 40 to 60, Madhya Pradesh from 29 to 44 , Rajasthan from 25 to 38, and Gujarat from 26 to 39. In contrast, southern states see smaller gains. Karnataka rises from 28 to 42, Tamil Nadu from 39 to 58–59, Andhra Pradesh from 25 to 38, Telangana from 17 to 26, and Kerala from 20 to 30. Five southern states together gain barely 66 additional seats, while seven BJP-dominated states gain about 131 seats—nearly double. Even after expanding the Lok Sabha to 816 seats, the collective share of southern states remains around 24%—unchanged and already modest. The BJP-led government is attempting to weaken our voice through a manipulative restructuring of representation. Such a structural change cannot be pushed without consultations or public debate.’ Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin warned that recalculating the seats using current population figures would diminish southern states’ representation, affecting their ability to secure funding and protect their cultural, linguistic, and developmental priorities (earlier coverage).