Centre proposes amendment to increase Lok Sabha seats up to 850. What bill says

THe BJP-led exchange regime has proposed an growth in the list of Lok Sabha seats up to 850 as constituent of the efforts to implement women's reservation in the House from the 2029 polls. According to the bill seen by HT, 815 seats are proposed for the states and 35 for the Union Territories.The government is proposing to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850 by revising Article 81. It also says the population for seat allocation will be based on data from the latest census, as decided by Parliament.The government is looking to move a constitution amendment bill for the implementation of 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha from 2029 in a special sitting of Parliament on April 16-18.This special part of the budget session has been convened to amend provisions of Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, and a proposed Delimitation Bill. While the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed in 2023, the reservation was to take effect only after a delimitation exercise and the ongoing census, but now it can be linked to a census from the past, being 2011 in this case. PM Modi calls parties to support amendmentPrime Minister Narendra Modi earlier called out to all political parties to support “collective action” to ensure that the reservation is in place by 2029. “From the 16th of April, a historic discussion related to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is set to take place in Parliament,” Modi wrote.During an event in Dehradun, PM said that after four decades of anticipation, Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam to ensure 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.Also read: Push to roll out women’s quota in line with Opposition demands: PM Modi"Let all political parties come together and advance this work concerning the rights of the country's sisters and daughters with a unanimous consensus," PM said.The special session comes at a time when Lok Sabha elections are set to be held in 2029, followed by the ongoing state assembly elections. Speaking on this, PM said that “the desire of Nari Shakti” is that its implementation should be before 2029.Also read: Congress to push for women reservation within existing Lok Sabha seatsOpposition express concernMeanwhile, opposition parties have expressed their concerns about the proposed delimitation bill, alleging that it will limit the representation of the southern states in the Lok Sabha.Opposition parties have also objected to the government's "rushing" of the bill before the general census.Alleging that the centre is ‘bulldozing’ the constitutional amendment, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said that the amendment is being passed without proper consultation with states. He said Tamil Nadu would launch a massive agitation if the state's interests are harmed or if southern states are disproportionately affected.Speaking about the bill, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi alleged that the real issue is not women's reservation at all, but rather the delimitation exercise being bundled with it."The real issue is delimitation which, based on the information unofficially available, is extremely dangerous and an assault on the Constitution itself," she wrote in an article for The Hindu.She said delimitation should only happen after a new census, as has always been done and warned it could disadvantage smaller and southern states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala.Sonia Gandhi also questioned the timing of the government's change of position from 2023, suggesting a "political narrative" behind it.