Southern states ‘misled' before, they will ‘gain’ seats, says Kiren Rijiju amid row over delimitation exercise

THe unification regime on tues allayed fears that the delimitation treat, which testament be carried out for the implementation of 33% women’s reservation in legislatures by 2029, will be politically disadvantageous to the southern states, adding that seats will be fairly distributed across regions.Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said an attempt was being made to “mislead” the southern states that they will lose out in the delimitation exercise since they adhered to population control norms.“If you go through the entire provisions of the bill, every state, region and community has been taken care of… there is nothing to worry about. In the past some people tried to mislead that the southern states would lose out due to their successful family planning. In fact these southern states are fortunate that despite controlling population growth and having fewer people proportionally, they still gain,” he said.ALSO READ | Delimitation reset to redraw India’s electoral contoursTo be sure, it is unclear how the southern states will not lose relative strength in Parliament if the government’s proposal goes through. The Centre’s legislative push to reserve a third of the seats in Parliament and state legislative assemblies involves raising the cap on seats in the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850, with the allocation of seats to states, the reserved constituencies and their boundaries being defined by a delimitation commission on the basis of the latest census, which would mean the 2011 one in this case.The details emerged from the bills circulated by the government to lawmakers ahead of the three-day sitting of Parliament between April 16 and 18, including The Delimitation Bill, 2026, The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026.The bills will be taken up in a special sitting of Parliament from April 16 to 18.ALSO READ | Sonia Gandhi vs PM Modi: ‘Women's quota is fine. Issue is delimitation’ | Lok Sabha expansion, explainedHT’s analysis shows that if the 2011 Census were to be used, the proportional representation of the five southern states taken together would go from 20.1% to 18%, and that of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar increase from 22.1% to 25.1%Although the draft of the bills shared with lawmakers made no mention of the tally or the percentage by which the seats are set to increase, a government functionary said the final mandate to decide rests with the delimitation commission.“The delimitation commission will decide the final numbers and it will also take into consideration factors such as the population of the SC and ST communities, geographic expanse etc.,” the functionary said, speaking on condition of anonymity.ALSO READ | Don’t create a storm in calm South: Stalin on delimitationEven as the opposition raised concerns about political representation for the southern states, Rijiju said, “No state is losing, seats across every state and region will be fairly distributed given the provision of an increase in the overall number of seats in this proposed bill. We will take care of the aspirations of every community and region.”He said that despite comments made by the opposition parties against the bills, the issue of women’s reservation had the support of all political outfits cutting across ideology.“In the political arena, different political parties have different takes, but when it comes to women’s reservation, there will be no difference in terms of coming together and supporting the cause of women’s empowerment. This is a historic moment to showcase how Indian society is thinking about shaping the future and giving women a lead role…I am very happy that no political party is opposed to it,” Rijiju said.The minister said that in his capacity as parliamentary affairs minister, he had reached out to every political party. “I feel proud that Indian society is coming together and all the MPs are coming together for the cause of women empowerment. When we passed the bill in the last Lok Sabha, no political party opposed it in principle and in spirit everybody was together. Every party is together, some statements for political purposes may have been made or some comments may have shown differences of opinion, but the primary objective is providing reservation for women in Parliament and in assemblies,” he said.Rijiju said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also expressed his gratitude to all political parties for coming together on this issue of national interest. “It will be extremely painful if they further delay this because it’s an issue that has been delayed for 40 years,” he said.ALSO READ | Delimitation plan skews representation, says CM SiddaramaiahThe Opposition, however, continued to express reservation about the increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats, and the delimitation process that redraws constituency boundaries broadly based on population and geographical compactness.“The bills being introduced in the name of implementing Women’s Reservation amount to a death warrant for federal India.The accompanying Delimitation Bill, presented as part of this exercise, would strip southern states — which have successfully implemented population control measures — of their rightful political power,” said John Brittas, floor leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Rajya Sabha.According to the government functionary quoted above, seats for women will be earmarked on a rotation basis for three terms. “The bills will be introduced by the Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal in the Lok Sabha on the 16th, the discussion for the passage of the bills is expected to be 18-20 hours in the Lok Sabha and about 10 hours in the Rajya Sabha…” the functionary said.Both the PM and Union home minister Amit Shah are expected to speak as well.