India can not run her Parliament with 800 MPs

s nobody will get time (to speak in Parliament). And Parliament sits for barely 60 days in a year. Look at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. 

They have 650 MPs and they sit for 150 days on an average in a year. India MPs get excessive salary than their man hours in Pariiament debates and accountablity of the Government and concerned minister and department.

The delimitation bill aims to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies based on population, potentially altering state representation. Southern states may see a reduction in their parliamentary seats due to slower population growth compared to northern states.

The bill links women's reservation to the delimitation exercise, making its implementation contingent on the redrawing of constituencies. Increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 could diminish the Rajya Sabha's influence in legislative matters.
 
At its core, the debate over India's latest Constitutional amendment is not just about reserving seats for women in legislatures -- it is about redrawing the very basis of political representation.

The Constitution originally envisioned a simple principle: Representation in the Lok Sabha should be proportional to population, ensuring 'one person, one vote, one value'.

But over decades, political compromises -- particularly the freezing of seat allocation based on the 1971 Census -- have held that principle in suspension. The current proposal by the Modi government seeks to reverse that pause.

Crucially, it also ties into the women's reservation law passed in 2023, which mandates that one-third of Lok Sabha seats be reserved for women -- but only after a fresh delimitation exercise.

What is the link between Delimitation And Women's Reservation. In effect, the promise of greater gender representation has been 'clubbed' with a far more complex and politically sensitive restructuring of constituencies.

This linkage shifts the focus: "The primary part is not about women's reservation but delimitation and increasing the size of the Lok Sabha." If a layperson asks you what is the problem with the delimitation bill what will you tell her/him. Why is the Opposition opposing the measure and the government supporting it.

The Constitution of India when it came into force in 1950, it said that the seats in the Lok Sabha will be allocated in two steps. Step 1: Every state will get Lok Sabha seats in proportion to its population. Step 2: Once you have done that, within the states all seats will be roughly equal in population.

So one person, one vote, one value, that is the principle. The Constitution also says that after every Census is published, the constituencies will be redrawn based on the new Census sigures on the same principle. This was done in the 1951 Census then 1961 and again in the 1971 Census.

It mean that the number of Lok Sabha seats was increased every 10 years post 1951. It changed from 1951 to 1971 as constituency borders were redrawn.

It may be kept in mind and note delimitation of seats happened in 1951, 1963 and 1973. It was decided in the 1951 elections that the Lok Sabha strength would be 494 seats. In 1963 the Lok Sabha strength would be 520 seats and in 1973 it would be 543 seats.

The number of seats was increased and decreased slightly. Now in the 1970s, there was a fairly high level of divergence in the growth of the states' population. There was also a huge push to reduce population with themes of family planning like 'Hum Do Humare Do.

The southern states became successful in the national population mission and saw a reduction in population and they got penalised for it in the Lok Sabha. This is not fair.

So it was decided in 1976, the Constitution amendment put it in proviso, which says that this will not be done for the next 25 years. And we continued with 543, roughly that number, for member of Parliament seats. Across states we have not touched the constituency for 25 years.

We are not redrawing. And 25 years happened in 2001 but the problem still persisted. Now the formulation that was agreed upon (in 2001) was that we will not touch the first part, which states will continue to have seats in proportion to the population as of 1971. But within states we will equalise.

Maharashtra had 48 seats and will continue to have 48 seats. Tamil Nadu has 39 seats and will continue to have 39 seats.

However, the 48 seats of Maharashtra will be equalised in areas like Mumbai and Thane where the population grew faster than the population of any constituency in rural Maharashtra. Chennai will get more seats compared to a rural Tamil Nadu constituency. This was agreed upon in 2001.

In 2002 the Delimitation Commission was finalised and finally the order came in 2008, so the 2009 elections were held on that basis. The seats were frozen until the next Census which is 2026. Till we reached 2026 we contested with the same constituencies in 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024.

In the bill that was introduced on Thursday (April 16, 2026) in Parliament, the government has removed the freezing provisions so we revert to the parent clause which is that it will be in proportion to the population.

And the second thing they have done is, since they have removed the freezing clause of 2026, they have given discretion to Parliament to enact a law to decide when delimitation will take place and which Census to use. So they have said 'as Parliament by law determined'.

'Parliament by law' means by a simple majority.  A Constitution Amendment means 2/3rd majority. That is the important part.  Now why are there concerns?

The concern for the southern states is that if we go back to the principle of proportionate to population, which is everywhere there is an equal vote, then the number of seats for several states for proportion of Parliament will come down significantly.

The most affected will be Kerala which currently has 3.68 percent of seats, which is 20 out of 543. It will move to something like 2.7 percent of seats. Tamil Nadu will move from 7.2 percent to 5.8 or 5.9 percent.

Uttar Pradesh on the other hand will move from 14.7 to 16.3 because their population has grown at a faster rate. Bihar will move from 7.4 percent to 8.4 percent.

On Thursday Home Minister Amit Shah said that every state will get an increase of 50 percent of seats from the current number of seats.

That is what he said on the floor of the House. We don't know whether they are going to bring any more amendments to the bill, but that is not what the bill's text says.

If the government intends to do what it said on Thursday, they will have to do certain amendments on Friday and at this point of time we don't know what they are. I don't have any documents to see what they are planning to do at this point of time.

The text of the delimitation bill that is to be passed says that the number of seats will be based on population. The text says 'in proportion to the population'. That is what the Constitution Amendment bill says.

The home minister said in the House on Thursday that this is not the case.

They are saying we assure you, but unless they bring something before the vote in terms of amendment of the draft then that is a different thing. Because the current bill presented in Parliament does not say that (seats of each state should be increased by 50 percent regardless of population).

While there is a concerns about an increase of MPs, the total proposed 816 MPs from now on in India -- this was the last figure we heard from Home Minister Amit Shah. The question of democracy relates will there be enough time to speak for all of these 816 Lok Sabha MPs in the Lok Sabha. 

You cannot run Parliament with 800 MPs as nobody will get time (to speak in Parliament). And Parliament sits for barely 60 days in a year. The agenda and public demand of seating has not been increased protionally.

Look at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. They have 650 MPs and they sit for 150 days on an average in a year. There will be multiple implications too, and it will be Lok Sabha versus Rajya Sabha.

Let us say the Lok Sabha becomes 816 seats and Rajya Sabha will remain with 245 seats. As of today the Lok Sabha is 543 and Rajya Sabha is 245 which is a ratio of 2.2:1. After the delimitation bill is passed it will become a ratio of 3.3:1 as the Lok Sabha seats will see a 50 percent increase.

Now, what are the implications? If the two Houses differ on a bill as one House passes the bill and the other rejects. We saw that in the POTA case where there was a joint sitting. The Lok Sabha is 543 and the Rajya Sabha is 245 so the Lok Sabha has an advantage of 2.2:1 ratio, which will now go up to 3.3:1 ratio (in favour of the Lok Sabha).

It mean the Rajya Sabha will become redundant. For example, the Lok Sabha in percentage terms is 53 to 47 in favour of the government and the Rajya Sabha is 60 to 40 percent in favour of the Opposition. Still the government will have an overall majority with the new formulation (of 816 Lok Sabha seats).

In the election of President and Vice President, every member of Parliament has an equal vote so the Rajya Sabha will have much lower numbers. 

We have seen the government had to negotiate with the Opposition to pass bills in the Rajya Sabha as they had lower numbers. Right from Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time to Dr Manmohan Singh's time the government was in a minority in the Rajya Sabha. They had to form some kind of consensus to pass their bills, which is a good thing in a democracy.

The difference between Women's Reservation Bill And Delimitation.  The women's reservation bill that was passed in 2023 says that women's reservation will come into effect after the next delimitation which would be after the 2027 Census. It would not have come up by the 2029 elections.

Now this effectively allows delimitation to take place before the 2029 elections. So it could come in earlier. The primary part is not about women's reservation but delimitation and increasing the size of the Lok Sabha. If you look at the bill there is one clause on women's reservation and 7 to 8 clauses on delimitation.

That means OBC women will be prejudiced from the women's reservation bill if it is passed in its current form.  Forget women, the only reservation in Parliament is for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. What the government is doing is sub-reservation of (women) SC and ST as there is reservation for SC and STs.

There is no reservation for OBCs in Parliament in any case, so how can you do sub-reservation for women? It is not possible. This will give delimitation to the BJP an electoral advantage. As the  proportion of the Lok Sabha seats in central India -- which is UP, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh -- are relatively going up compared to the South, East and Punjab. if we analyse Women Reservation Bill.