Safeguard for States with stable populations is being removed with immediate effect

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha on Thursday (April 16, 2026) that the proposed increase in its size —from the current maximum of 550 seats to a maximum of 850 — will be done in a manner that each State in the country will have an additional 50% seats. Mr. Shah also read out the exact numbers for several States — Tamil Nadu from 39 to around 59, Karnataka from 28 to 42, Kerala from 20 to 30, Andhra Pradesh from 25 to 38 and Telangana from 17 to 26. Mr. Shah said he would explain on Friday (April 17, 2026) how this assurance aligns with the proposals in the drafts of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill and the Delimitation Bill. The Prime Minister and Home Minister assured that the current proportion of seats of each State in the Lok Sabha, which was determined on the basis of the 1971 population in 1973, will continue unchanged.

The distribution of Lok Sabha seats across States is governed by Articles 81 and 82 of the Constitution, in a two-step process, set in two separate sub-clauses of clause 2 of Article 81. The first step is to allocate seats among individual States. The second step is to divide each State into territorial constituencies. The two separate steps are written in the Constitution to balance the principles of federalism (representation of States) and democracy (representation of the individual – the ‘one person, one vote, one value principle).