April 19, 2026
By P. K. Balachandran
The Indian Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to smuggle in the controversial issue of increasing the number of parliamentary seats by clubbing it with the non-controversial issue of providing 33% reservation for women, but failed to get the required support.
On Friday, the Indian government led by Narendra Modi, suffered its first ever defeat in the Lower House of the Indian parliament (Lok Sabha), when its 131 st. Constitutional Amendment Bill to increase the number of parliamentary seats from 543 to 850 and provide for 33% reservation for women failed to get the required two-thirds majority.
The government’s ploy to smuggle in the controversial issue of increasing the number of parliamentary seats by clubbing it with the non-controversial issue of providing 33% reservation for women, failed.
Th opposition argued that there was no need to combine the two objectives when parliament had already passed the women’s reservation bill in 2023 but had not been implemented.
While 298 members voted for the 131 st., Constitutional Amendment Bill, 230 MPs voted against, thus denying the government a two-thirds majority.
Strong Opposition from South Indian States
The Bill was opposed by the opposition, especially MPs from the South Indian States and West Bengal. The increase in the number of seats based on the population of States, would result in the South Indian States getting a lesser proportion of seats than North Indian States.
The South Indian States have been pointing out that they have limited their population growth by improving the conditions of their people in terms of economic, social and educational development. But North Indians States have not done so. And yet, the latter are being rewarded with more representation, as if they are being rewarded for backwardness.
Statisticians have been pointing out that while North Indian States like Uttar Pradesh will see an increase in the number seats from 80 to 128; Bihar from 40 to 70; Madhya Pradesh from 29 to 47; and Rajasthan from 25 to 44; South Indian States will see only small increases.
Andhra Pradesh will see an increase from 25 to only 28; Telangana from 17 to 20; Tamil Nadu from 39 to 41; and Karnataka from 28 to 36. Kerala, which has the best social indices, will see a decline, from 20 to 19.
Tamil Nadu
On Wednesday, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M.K.Stalin, warned that if the Bill was passed, “the people of Tamil Nadu would be turned into second-class citizens in their own country.”
“When our MPs have no voice, will we have a voice? And if we do not raise our voice now, there will be no voice left for us to raise,” Stalin asserted.
He added the Bill would ensure that “there can never be a Prime Minister from South India.”
Karnataka
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister, D K Shivakumar, said the Centre’s proposal would “systematically reduce” the representation of South Indian States. In a post on X, Shivakumar alleged that the move could weaken the South’s voice in Parliament while disproportionately benefiting States with higher population growth.
He called it “punishing progress and good governance” and said that the Southern States would also be “politically marginalised.”
Kerala
“There is a serious suspicion in the Southern States that the bill is a move to subvert the federal system of the country,” said the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan.
“It is worrying that the Centre is moving forward on such a crucial issue without reaching a consensus with the States. There is widespread suspicion that the political dominance of the North Indian States due to their higher population is being converted into parliamentary seats and power is being consolidated for the long term,” Vijayan added.
West Bengal
The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, said that delimitation will be followed by National Register of Citizens (NRC) which has been a means to delete names and send the deleted persons to detention camps.
“The people of Bengal will be driven out, and you (the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre) will bring people from outside and make them vote for you. Is that the plan? They have selectively deleted voters. Over 60 lakh Hindus, and 30 lakh Muslim names have been deleted in West Bengal through the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls, ” Banerjee pointed out.
Rahul Gandhi
The leader of the parliamentary opposition, and Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, said that the Bill was an “anti-national act” and added that combining the provision for increasing parliamentary seats with one for giving 33% reservation for women was a clever ploy to get the controversial Bill passed.
The opposition has pointed out that parliament had already passed the women’s reservation bill in 2023 and all that the government has to do is to implement the act. By combining seats increase with reservation for women, the government had tried to get the seats increase provision passed.
Controversial Provisions
The Bill gives Parliament the flexibility to determine the periodicity of Delimitation of constituencies and also the Census that will be used for the purpose. The Bill requires just a simple majority in parliament to determine when to do a delimitation, and which Census to use.
“This would enable the government of the day to fix everything as per its wish, ” said M.R. Madhavan, President of PRS Legislative Research, in an article in “The Hindu.”
House of States (Rajya Sabha)
While the size of the Lower House (Lok Sabha) is sought to be increased, there is no proposal to change the size of the Upper House of States, called the Rajya Sabha. This affects the relative importance of the two Houses.
If the two Houses disagree on a Bill, the President may summon a joint sitting. In such a scenario, the Lok Sabha with 543 seats will have 2.2 times the votes of the Rajya Sabha with 245 seats.
This imbalance will also play out in elections to the offices of the President and the Vice-President, where each MP across both Houses has an equal vote.
Another implication is that the limit on the size of the Council of Ministers will increase. The Constitution was amended in 2003 to limit the Council’s size to 15% of the Lok Sabha. If the Lok Sabha is expanded to have 815 MPs, the limit on the size of the Central cabinet also increases from 81 to 122.
Less Time To Speak
Given the increased size of the Lok Sabha, opportunities for MPs to participate in the deliberations of the House will decrease, Madhavan points out.
Since questions and zero-hour interventions are chosen by lottery, an increase in the size of the Lok Sabha will reduces the probability of getting balloted.
The issue is exacerbated by the fact that the Indian Parliament sits for less than 70 days a year.
The British House of Commons is large with 650 members. But it has evolved processes to provide opportunities to MPs to participate in discussions. It averages over 150 sittings a year and has a robust committee system. Parliamentary committees supplement deliberations. Every Bill in the UK Parliament is examined by Committees of both Houses. In India, less than a fifth of the Bills are referred to Committees.
The Indian Bill question will have a significant impact on the functioning of the Indian parliament. And yet it was introduced with no public discussion, Madhavan pointed out.
“It is imperative that such Bills go through intensive deliberation, both outside and inside Parliament. At the very least, they should be referred to a parliamentary committee, which can engage with experts and the wider public before giving its recommendations,” he observed.
P. K. Balachandran
P. K. Balachandran is a senior Indian journalist working in Sri Lanka for local and international media and has been writing on South Asian issues for the past 21 years.
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