Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday, April 15, came out strongly against the draft Delimitation Bill, 2026, saying the proposed exercise would penalise southern states that had sincerely implemented the National Population Policy of 1976 while rewarding states that had lagged behind in population control. It is imperative that the present Delimitation Bill which is sought to be taken up without much discussions be dropped forthwith, he said.
The draft bill, now in the public domain, has raised alarm among southern states, which fear that a delimitation exercise based purely on current population figures would reduce their proportional representation in the Lok Sabha. States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which achieved significant success in controlling population growth, stand to lose seats to more populous northern states under such a formula.
Pinarayi Vijayan said the proposed delimitation would be "highly unjust" and amounted to penalising states for responsibly implementing national policy. "In a federal democracy, the raison d'être for representation cannot be mere numbers," he said, adding that federalism was an inalienable part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
"The present attempt to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha, through an amendment proposed to be brought about in a haste will undoubtedly destroy the spirit of consensus, which was the cornerstone of our Constitution making," Vijayan said in a statement.
The Chief Minister also raised concerns about the manner in which the bill was being pushed through. He said the attempt to link the delimitation exercise to the implementation of women's reservation was "nothing but a ploy to mask the real objectives behind this entire exercise."
Vijayan pointed out that the bill was being taken up at a time when elections to four state assemblies and one Union Territory were yet to be completed, which he said had "raised genuine suspicions about the political considerations behind it."
Pinarayi Vijayan said reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures should be implemented immediately, without linking it to delimitation or the census.