Bengaluru: Tejasvi Surya, the Member of Parliament from Bengaluru South, said Thursday that southern states “could not have got a better deal” than the one on the table. Surya was speaking on the Delimitation Bill 2026 & Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha.
He spoke at length about the Bills, defending the contentious delimitation exercise which southern states, particularly non-NDA-ruled states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana fear will dilute political representation and relevance of southern India in the larger scheme of things.
“Whichever way you look at it, if you look at it from the way of the 2027 census, if you look at it from the way of 2011 census, if you look at it by 543 as redistribution, or by taking away all of these things and only basing it on population, none of these permutations and combinations is going to give southern states as best a deal as what Narendra Modi government has now given by this 50 percent proportionate increase in the population in the seats formally,” Surya said.
Earlier in the day, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal told Parliament that there will be a uniform 50 percent increase in the strength of Lok Sabha MPs, raising the total number of seats in the Lower House to 815. Of these, 272 seats will be reserved for women.
His statement, followed by Surya’s, comes even as chief ministers of non-NDA-ruled southern states continue to protest the Modi government’s proposal to introduce the Delimitation Bill 2026, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has cautioned that the proposed delimitation exercise “risks concentrating power in a few large states” and weakening the position of other southern states which he said would “undermine the federal balance”.
Telangana CM Revanth Reddy has proposed a ‘hybrid’ formula—allotment of Lok Sabha seats to states equally on a pro-rata basis and the size of the state’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin has threatened to hit the streets if the existing proposal is implemented and even tore up a copy of the bill. On Thursday, the DMK chief burnt a copy of the Bills while calling for a black flag protest across the state where polling is to be held on 23 April.
To bolster their arguments, opposition parties have highlighted that the delimitation proposal—in its current form—would readjust Lok Sabha seats allotted to states on the basis of the ‘latest census’ figures—effectively in proportion to their population.
Parallely, the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill 2026 seeks to amend Article 81 of the Constitution, to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha from the current 543 to up to 850 seats.
In his speech Thursday, Surya accused the Opposition of “misleading” the people with frivolous and mischievous arguments.
Also Read: How numbers are stacked against Modi govt’s delimitation push in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha
‘Vacuous and illogical arguments’
Several top political leaders in southern states have argued that their representation in Parliament will come down, ultimately leading to a situation wherein one or two large states can dictate policies due to their higher number of representatives in the Lok Sabha.
Surya said that this was not true as the share of southern states will also go up proportionally.
“As a result of this Tamil Nadu which is now at 39, is going to get 59 seats. Karnataka which has 28 is going to get 42 seats. Andhra Pradesh which has 25 will get 38 seats, Telangana which has 17 will get 26 seats, Kerala which has 20, will get 30 seats,” Surya said. He added that southern states currently account for 23.7 percent of representation on the floor of the House and the same proportion will continue after delimitation as well.
He also argued that the 2011 population formula will result in southern states losing out. If you take the 2011 number, Kerala will lose 5 seats but if you take the 2027 number, Kerala will lose 6 seats, he said.
He accused the Opposition of trying to mislead people with its “vacuous and illogical arguments”.
“This whole argument that the southern states is going to lose because of the proportionate 50 percent increase, I will say is a vacuous argument, it is an illogical argument, an unconstitutional argument but most importantly Speaker sir, it is a mischievous argument that comes from creating anarchy in this country by misleading the people,” he said.
“If you take this argument forward, Mukesh Ambani will have 1 lakh votes and like me will have only 1 vote,” Surya said, emphasising on retaining the value of the vote. Calling the proposal made by Revanth Reddy a “foolish argument”, he said that GSDP fluctuates and proportional representation cannot be based on something dynamic. “These are the kind of laughable alternatives that the Congress party is proposing and on the basis of this, they are misleading the people of this country,” Surya said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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