The long pending controversy regarding delimitation of parliamentary constituencies came to the fore again in 2026, when the government presented a bill that suggested increasing the number of parliamentary seats, delimitation of constituencies, and reservation of seats for women.
Though the bills failed, the question of delimitation along with its consequences remained a matter of political debate.
Population versus federal representation
According to the data provided by the ISAS (National University of Singapore), the total strength of the Lok Sabha has been fixed at 543 members since 1973, as per the population census conducted in 1971 when the population of India was 54.8 crore.
Article 82 of the Constitution provides for reapportionment of seats for the states on the basis of the latest population census to ensure equal representation of every Member of Parliament.
With the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976 and the 84th Amendment in 2002, the process of reapportionment was frozen till 2001 and 2026 census respectively.
Constituency populations vary widely across states today. States that have grown faster since 1971 are relatively under-represented, while states with slower population growth, concentrated in the South, are relatively over-represented.
Reapportioning seats strictly by current population would address that imbalance but only by shifting seats away from the states that curbed their population growth.
Why southern states are concerned
The official statistics make this contrast even clearer. As per SRS 2021 of the Registrar General of India, the crude birth rate in Tamil Nadu has been on a declining trend of 2.35 per cent annually between 2016 and 2021. While in Kerala, it has declined by 2.05 per cent.
In both states, this decline is more than twice the national average of 1.12 per cent. In the case of northern states, the metric has fallen less, as seen in Bihar (0.86) and Uttar Pradesh (1.09) annually.
According to SRS 2021, the total fertility rate in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is 3.0 and 2.7, respectively, but the national average is 2.0, which is less than the replacement level of 2.1.
“Such an exercise can give an additional 32 seats to North Indian states but at the cost of about 24 seats from southern states, where Tamil Nadu and Kerala combined might lose 16 seats,” a research article published in 2019 said.
In March 2025, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin organised an all-party conference, calling for an extension of the freeze period by another 30 years.
Later on, a Joint Action Committee of southern chief ministers, consisting of Stalin, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, Revanth Reddy of Telangana, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab and D.K. Shivakumar of Karnataka, called upon the Centre to further extend the freeze for another 25 years.
As Kanimozhi of DMK stated, “Southern states will lose their voice due to delimitation.”
What constitutional safeguards exist?
The most important safeguard is the freeze itself, the third proviso to Article 82, which prohibits any further delimitation until the first census conducted after 2026.
It would require a constitutional amendment, which would need a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha.
The first test of this safeguard came in April 2026 when the 131st Amendment attempted to remove the proviso and replace it after 2026 with the 2011 census, while providing for reservation for women.
The bill received only 298 out of the 528 votes cast and failed on April 17, 2026. The government subsequently withdrew the Delimitation and the Union Territories Laws Bills of 2026.
Can delimitation change the balance of political power?
The government has said it can do so without any cost to the south.
Home Minister Amit Shah told during the debate in Lok Sabha that fears of reduced southern representation were a “misconception,” saying no state, “especially in South India, will face reduced representation” under a model that would expand the House’s total elected strength while keeping each region’s proportional share broadly unchanged.
The government also said the current Lok Sabha’s seat distribution would stay in place until after 2029, regardless of the outcome.
Opposition parties and independent analysts remain unconvinced, arguing that any exercise anchored to a more recent census will shift relative influence toward faster-growing northern states even if every state’s absolute seat count rises.
No new census has been conducted and with the 2026 withdrawn bills, the freeze under Article 82 remains in force, and the dispute over how and when delimitation should proceed is expected to resurface before Parliament again. TPB
