India's government recently failed to pass three bills aimed at addressing the country's long-standing delimitation issue, intensifying the debate over parliamentary representation. Since the last reapportionment in 1971, India's population has surged by nearly 1 billion, leading to significant malapportionment where northern states are underrepresented and southern states are overrepresented.
A population-based reallocation of Lok Sabha seats would likely benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, as they are strong in underrepresented northern states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, which stand to gain up to 26 seats based on 2026 projections. Conversely, southern states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, where the BJP struggles, could lose up to 21 seats, disrupting an informal federal equilibrium. The proposed legislation also sought to increase the Lok Sabha's maximum strength to 850 and operationalize the 2023 Women’s Reservation Bill, reserving one-third of seats for women, but lacked explicit guarantees against southern seat losses. This unresolved debate highlights a fundamental contest over political power and the future of India's federal order.
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