The Opposition party had also dismissed as ‘drama’ Modi’s appeal to Opposition parties to support legislation linked to delimitation and the implementation of women’s reservation. The Congress had alleged that the prime minister’s ‘single point agenda’ was ‘Modi preservation, not women’s reservation’.
The delimitation issue is politically sensitive because a fresh exercise based on population could alter the distribution of Lok Sabha seats among states. Southern states, which have generally performed better in population control, have expressed concern that they could lose relative representation if seats are redistributed primarily on the basis of population.
The Constitution provides for delimitation after each Census, but the allocation of seats among states has remained frozen since the 1970s. The existing freeze was extended until the first Census after 2026 by the 84th Constitutional Amendment in 2001.
The issue has acquired renewed urgency as the next delimitation exercise is expected to be linked to the first Census conducted after 2026. The government has yet to publicly set out a comprehensive proposal on how the exercise would affect the strength and state-wise distribution of Lok Sabha seats.
During the Budget session on 17 April, the Modi government faced a setback when a Constitution amendment Bill linked to delimitation and the implementation of women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies was defeated in the Lower House.
Of the 528 MPs who voted, 298 supported the Bill while 230 opposed it. The legislation required the support of at least two-thirds of the members voting to pass the constitutional amendment.
With PTI inputs
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