Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced the exact seat share of the southern states after the proposed expansion of the Lok Sabha to accommodate women’s reservation. He said that each state’s seat share will be increased uniformly by around 50% so that their proportional representation in the Lok Sabha remains the same.
Amit Shah shared the following figures in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, April 16, during the special session of the Parliament convened to bring in three bills aimed at implementing women’s reservation and delimitation of constituencies.
“There’s confusion being spread that these three bills will reduce south India’s representation in the Lok Sabha and hurt these states. I will give the government's answer to the debate tomorrow. But I don't want any confusion among people of the country even tonight,” Amit Shah said.
When asked for the reason behind expanding the Lok Sabha to 850 seats as proposed in the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, Amit Shah said that the idea was to expand the previous Lok Sabha by approximately 50% so that when one-third of the seats set aside for women were accounted for, the remaining two-thirds strength would be similar to the original strength.
By expanding to 850 seats, when one-third of the seats are set aside for women, the remaining “open” seats would nearly equal the previous strength of the Lok Sabha (543), he said.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the House that he would give a ‘guarantee’ that no state would be discriminated against. “The government that was in power before, under whom the delimitation happened, and the proportion that has been in place since then, there will be no change in that proportion. The expansion will also be according to that proportion,” he said.
A three-day special session of the Parliament has been convened to discuss three bills, the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
TNM had earlier reported that the BJP was planning to bring in an amendment to the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, which will bring in a uniform 50% increase to the existing seats.