Centre Likely To Reintroduce Delimitation Bill During Monsoon Session of Parliament

New Delhi: The Central government is likely to reintroduce the Delimitation Bill during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament.

In April, the bill could not be passed in the Lok Sabha since the government required a two-thirds majority (362 votes), but had the support of only 298 MPs.

Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies and reallocating seats based on population. In India, this is mandated under Article 82 of the Constitution, which requires Parliament to readjust seats after every Census. 

The exercise is carried out by an independent Delimitation Commission, whose decisions are binding and cannot be challenged in court. It involves fixing the number of seats per state, redrawing constituency boundaries, and reserving seats for SC/ST communities.

The Delimitation Bill, 2026, paired with the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, proposes a major expansion of the Lok Sabha, increasing its strength from the current 543 seats to around 800-850 seats. This expansion is also tied to the implementation of 33% reservation for women, which will require additional seats and fresh constituency mapping across the country.

The proposal calls for a fresh delimitation exercise where constituency boundaries across India will be redrawn using updated population data collected after the next Census. This exercise will cover both Lok Sabha and state Assembly constituencies to reflect demographic changes.

Opposition parties, especially from southern states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, have raised concerns that delimitation based purely on population could disproportionately benefit northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi had earlier said that Congress and its allies are “continuously lying over delimitation” to fan the flames of division.

“Congress has learned the politics of divide and rule from the British as its heritage. Even today, Congress is functioning on the same. Congress has always fanned the sentiments which create fractures within the country. So, misinformation was spread that delimitation would cause a loss to a few states. But the Govt has made it clear from the first day itself that neither the proportion of a state's representation will change nor will anyone's representation be lower. Seats of all states will be increased in an equal proportion. Still, Congress, DMK, TMC, SP and other parties are not ready to accept this,” he further said.