Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the controversy surrounding delimitation after fears were expressed by opposition parties, mainly the Congress, over injustice to southern states due to a reported planned hike in Lok Sabha seats from the present 543 to 816, up 50%.At Pathanamthitta in Kerala, where he addressed an election rally of the BJP on Saturday (April 4), Modi said certain individuals are spreading misinformation, claiming that because their population growth has slowed, their parliamentary seat allocation will be reduced.It was Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy who initially flagged the possible disparities between the north and south in the composition of parliament for any population-driven delimitation of constituencies. His view was supported by senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh as well as Congress MP from Tamil Nadu Manickam Tagore.As the long-winding census operations took off across the country on Wednesday, they reignited concerns among non-BJP ruled states of the south about the possibility of a major remapping of the parliamentary constituencies based on population that could further widen the existing representation gap between north and south in the supreme legislative body.At Pathanamthitta, Modi said in his speech: “We would like to confirm in parliament, to provide the stamp of the law in parliament, that be it Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra, Goa or Telangana or wherever else, Lok Sabha seats will not decrease…”The Hindu has reported that the Union government is planning amendments to the Constitution and relevant legislation to increase the size of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies by half, with a third of total seats reserved for women, before the 2029 general elections. Parliament will resume its budget session on April 16 to consider these amendments.It also noted that while the government has told representatives of political parties that the proportion of constituencies that individual states account for in the Lok Sabha will not change, Modi in his speech did not clarify whether he was referring to an absolute or relative decrease in seats.With the exception of the BJP and its friendly parties in Andhra Pradesh like the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress, all parties in the south are seemingly unanimous that their political stakes in parliament will come down and that they will get marginalised in the national context. In fact, multiple parties met in Chennai last year to protest against a hike in seats.Noting that population growth is directly linked to social and economic backwardness as opposed to religion, political analyst and former editor of Andhra Jyothi K. Srinivas recalled that the growth of population among Muslims was lower in the south than in the north due to population control measures implemented by these state governments. The success of family planning norms adopted by N. Chandrababu Naidu when he first became chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1995 was also seen in other southern states in due course, he said.“Now, rewarding backwardness and punishing progress and development appears to be the norm,” Srinivas remarked.After Reddy spoke about fears of a grave injustice to the south in the upcoming delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, Ramesh wrote on X to say that through the delimitation exercise the southern states would gain 66 seats as against their northern counterparts’ 200. Modi, he added, “is unilaterally preparing a law which will disadvantage smaller states in the south, northeast and west”.The Modi Govt is proposing to bulldoze a Bill to increase the size of the Lok Sabha by 50%. The number of seats allocated to each state is also proposed to be increased by 50%.The argument that a 50% increase in seats across-the-board is equitable is deceptive. Proportions may…— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) April 1, 2026Later, Tamil Nadu MP Tagore also tweeted that “southern states risk being pushed to the political margins” and wrote about the widening gaps in representation as pointed out by Reddy. He said that while a uniform 50% increase in seats might appear fair, the underlying population disparities between regions would inevitably tilt parliamentary representation towards states with higher population growth.The proposed Lok Sabha expansion is not just about adding seats — it’s about who gains power and who gets pushed aside.Tamilnadu Chief Minister Thiru @mkstalin raised it .As highlighted by Telangana Chief minister @revanth_anumula garu• Uttar Pradesh: 80 → 120 seats… https://t.co/da6KfQhF0s— Manickam Tagore .B🇮🇳மாணிக்கம் தாகூர்.ப (@manickamtagore) March 31, 2026Reddy spoke precisely on the same lines in an informal chat with mediapersons. He said if the 50% norm is applied across states, the five southern states and two Union territories collectively would add 66 seats, increasing their strength from 131 to 197. He gave the present breakup of seats as follows: Telangana (17), Tamil Nadu (39), Karnataka (28), Andhra Pradesh (25), Kerala (20) and Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at one each (he did not mention Lakshadweep, which accounts for one Lok Sabha seat, although accounting for it would still result in an increase of 66 seats).However, the states in the Hindi heartland would see a 142-seat jump, with Uttar Pradesh alone contributing 40 extra seats, he said. The state presently has 80 MPs but this could go up to 120 with a 50% increase.On the other hand, a state like Telangana, which presently has 17 seats, will clamber to just 26 and appear largely marginalised in a major shakeup as this as the difference between the two states will go up from 63 to 94 seats. This was enough to point out how deceptive the whole exercise was aimed to be, Reddy said.In real terms, he also said the gap between north and south could widen by up to 272 seats and give the northern states a free hand to rule the entire country. This could impact the south adversely in deliverables, Reddy also warned.He demanded that the present gap in the distribution of seats between north and south be maintained. He did not have any objection to increases in assembly seats within states.Without dwelling into the base used for a 50% upward hike in seats, Reddy pointed out that the Union government had already made arrangements for more than 816 seats in the new Lok Sabha building. But Congress leaders and other opposition parties have raised concerns that the Union government is using the census that began on Wednesday as the toolkit for delimitation of seats, both in the Lok Sabha and in state assemblies.Congress MLA and government whip in the Telangana assembly, Aadi Srinivas, told The Wire that the Union government is targeting southern states, which took effective population control measures. “The Union government aims to rule the country from the north,” he alleged.The same view was expressed by Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary and MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao when he said population control should not become a curse on those states that have outperformed their peers.If population is the sole parameter, then the ratio of seats between the top 50% of states and the bottom 50% should not be wider than 60:40, he proposed.He also claimed that the proposed move was linked to the BJP’s attempts not to depend on alliance partners like the Janata Dal (United) and the Telugu Desam Party for its survival at the Union level. He recalled that the BJP government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee collapsed by one vote in parliament amid sensitive relations within the then-ruling coalition.CPI (Marxist) central committee and state secretariat member S. Veeraiah demanded that the population census of the year on which the number of Lok Sabha seats was fixed at 543 – i.e. of 1971 – should be taken into account for a fresh delimitation.However, Telangana BJP president N. Ramchander Rao rubbished talk of population being the proposed criteria for enhancing the number of Lok Sabha seats. He said: “It is a foolish argument that the seats of the north will increase. Seats will increase proportionately throughout the country. There is no question of one region benefitting at the expense of another. The 33% women’s reservation will contribute to the growth of seats.”He argued that the Union government is yet to announce a policy on delimitation or the enhancement of Lok Sabha seats. However, hypothetical arguments of a 50% hike in seats were advanced by the opposition to create confusion in the minds of the public, he stated.Rao did not hazard a guess on whether the delimitation or enhancement of seats will be done on the basis of population or any other factor. The 33% reservation for women that is on the anvil, which will also intersect with quotas for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, would be a huge factor that will weigh on the increase in seats, he said.“The delimitation of parliamentary constituencies has to take place every 20 years. A proper procedure for the purpose will be laid down by the delimitation commission headed by a Supreme Court judge,” he added.Southern states’ concerns were articulated last year too in high-profile meetThe controversy over the Lok Sabha seat increase had gained momentum after three chief ministers and representatives of multiple parties met in Chennai in March last year to drum up support for states likely to be affected by delimitation.The meeting was hosted by Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin and attended by Reddy, his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan and Karnataka deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the principal opposition in Telangana, was also represented by its working president K.T. Rama Rao.The meeting noted that post-2026, the situation may become drastically skewed if the delimitation exercise was conducted as per the next census.“The states which have effectively implemented the population control programme and consequently whose population share has come down should not be penalised. The Union government must enact necessary constitutional amendments for this purpose,” the resolution adopted at the meeting said.The resolution also demanded that the freeze on the number of Lok Sabha seats remain in place for another 25 years.The last delimitation exercise was conducted in 2002-2008 for Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies by adjusting the boundaries of constituencies based on the 2001 census.Although this exercise rearranged boundaries and changed the number of reserved seats, it did not alter the total number of seats allotted to each state. The number of seats in the Lok Sabha was frozen at 543, based on the 1971 census, from 1976.