Thought Experiment: How Shashi Tharoor Responded to Chandrababu Naidu’s Support For Centre’s Delimitation Plan

Responding to Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu's recent remarks about supporting the Centre's delimitation plan, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor explained the concerns of Southern CMs over the Bill in a post on X.

Tharoor’s Post 

Arguing that the proposed 50% uniform increase in Lok Sabha seats for all states will not actually translate into equal political weight for all, Tharoor wrote, "Naidu ji, let’s try a thought experiment. Say your salary is 2 lakhs and your driver’s is 20,000. You announce a 50% increase for everybody. Your salary is now 3 lakhs and your driver’s is 30,000. The percentage or proportional increase is the same — but aren’t you much better than you used to be?

Using the analogy, Tharoor sought to explain why the Southern CMs, whose states have significantly less and controlled population, oppose the plan. "That’s what your fellow Southern CMs are concerned about. You don’t think there’s any difference between UP’s 80 MPs today versus Kerala’s 20 MPs, if it tomorrow becomes 120 vs 30? Some proportionate difference, huge difference in political weight — with 90 more UP MPs against 10 more Kerala MPs. Is that of no concern to you at all?" he added.

Tharoor’s argument on delimitation, which could according to him significantly alter the political balance in favour of larger states, follows Naidu’s earlier comments on the BJP-led NDA government reintroducing the Delimitation Bill soon.

Naidu’s Remarks

Noting that the Bill clearly spells out a 50% proportional increase in Lok Sabha seats across states, Naidu, in an interview with ET, said, “The NDA government will bring the Delimitation Bill and introduce women's reservation soon. It is the need of the hour if we want to introduce reservation of women in politics. This has my full support.”

He further pointed out that the Opposition had made an “unnecessary issue” out of the omission of the 50% proportional increase provision from the original Bill. "The intention of the government was absolutely clear from the beginning. The government stated it on the floor of the House that there will be 50% increase of seats across the states and the proportion of seats will not change. There was only a matter of omission from the text of the Bill. The Opposition unnecessarily made it an issue."

Naidu’s remarks are the first among any of the NDA leaders’, confirming the government’s plans to bring the Bills back to Parliament. He also stated that he believes the Bills can now be passed.

The Bill’s linking to the 2011 Census has been opposed by several regional parties, like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), from southern states. They reason that the linking puts the states that successfully controlled population growth at a disadvantage and that they could lose political influence.

But Naidu argued that the 50% proportional increase in seats across all states would successfully address these concerns.

Pointing to recent political developments, including the split in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and 20 MPs changing sides, he also said that the changing circumstances could improve the chances of the two Bills being passed. "The political circumstances have changed in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. I think it will be easy to push the legislations now," he said.

Additionally, Naidu recalled previous delimitation freeze discussions under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Naidu, told ET, “I was also responsible for then Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee freezing the number of seats in 2001. I told the Prime Minister that the population is declining in South India, so he should not link it to the latest Census because southern states will be punished. He accepted that the exercise should be linked to the 1971 Census and froze the seats till after 2026. But now we need to address this problem again.”

What are the Bills?

The Women's Reservation Act, officially enacted as the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, mandates a 33% reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies to correct longstanding gender disparities in Indian lawmaking.

It was passed and approved with near-unanimous political backing but was left frozen, as its implementation was conditionally tied to a post-2026 delimitation exercise.

Delimitation refers to the periodic redrawing of the boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies to reflect demographic changes, ensuring that every lawmaker represents an approximately equal number of citizens.

Under the Delimitation Bill, 2026 proposal, the government intends to expand the size of the Lok Sabha from its current 543 seats up to a maximum cap of 850 seats. This delimitation exercise will be linked to the 2011 Census to bypass the long delays of the fresh decadal census, enabling immediate constituency restructuring.

The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, aims to fast-track the implementation of 33% reservation for women in legislatures by enabling delimitation based on the 2011 Census

The central government introduced this package of legislations, including the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, during a special session of Parliament in April 2026. However, the Bills were defeated because the government did not have the required two-thirds majority.

The opposition parties have strongly objected to the Delimitation Bill, 2026, accusing the ruling administration of “using women's empowerment as a political shield to unilaterally alter the country's electoral map”. While opposition leaders maintain they fully support the women's quota, they argue that “tying it to a highly complex redrawing of parliamentary seats is unconstitutional”. They demand that the 33% reservation be unlinked from delimitation entirely and implemented immediately within the existing 543-seat structure.

Beyond the quota structure, the 2026 delimitation exercise itself has triggered severe anxieties regarding shifting balance of national political power. Southern states have raised a collective alarm, arguing that a population-proportionate expansion of the Lok Sabha will severely penalise them for their successful decade-long implementation of population control policies.

Because the more populous northern states have experienced rapid population growth, any strict seat re-allocation based on numbers will drastically increase their parliamentary share. Southern leadership fears this shift will diminish their regional political leverage in New Delhi, and effectively allow a “single geographic block to form national governments or alter the Constitution without southern consensus”.