India proposes major parliament expansion

India has proposed a major expansion of seats in the Lok Sabha, its lower house of parliament, with a draft bill being shared with lawmakers to amend the constitution.

If the bill is passed, the new Lok Sabha will comprise 850 members, up from 543 now, an increase of 57%. The strength of the house is capped at 550, and an amendment is needed to raise it.

Indian law mandates an adjustment in the allocation of seats, based on the population of its states, after every census is completed.

The current Lok Sabha is based on the 1971 census. India then passed an amendment by which constituency boundaries were frozen until the first census after 2026.

The world’s most populous country’s massive census exercise, which began on April 1, is expected to conclude in 2027.

The government hopes to remove the 2026 clause and enact a delimitation, or the process of fixing the boundaries of electoral constituencies, based on the 2011 census.

“The country’s demographic profile has since undergone substantial changes,” an official statement on the proposed law’s objectives to revisit the freezing of seats said. Another aim of the proposed amendment is to ensure 33% of seats for women.

New Delhi says the latest census and delimitation exercise will “take considerable time and thus, delay the effective and dedicated participation of women in our democratic polity.”

The move has been criticized by opposition parties, which argue that the exercise should be based on the updated 2021 census exercise, which was not published due to the Covid lockdown.

India’s constitution does not specify a fixed schedule for conducting the census.

India’s southern states have expressed concern that a slower population growth rate in the region would offer an undue advantage to the north by adding more seats to populous states.

The chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin, has warned of a massive protest if the delimitation proposal affects southern states.