Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday (April 16, 2026) told the Lok Sabha that the Bills to amend the women’s reservation law and carry out a fresh delimitation exercise will keep current proportional representation of southern States intact while increasing the absolute number of seats for each State approximately by 50%.

While the Prime Minister gave an assurance that the proportional distribution of seats among States will be maintained, it was the Home Minister who gave a detailed scenario for each southern State after the three Bills become law.

The debate followed the introduction of three Bills: the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, to enable implementation of the women’s quota by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls; the Delimitation Bill, 2026, to readjust parliamentary and Assembly constituencies through a Delimitation Commission; and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to extend the quota to the legislatures of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu & Kashmir.

Mr. Shah said that as the Minister piloting the Bill, he was placing this interpretation before the House officially. “I understand my responsibility. Those who are spreading misconceptions perhaps do not understand,” he said.

The Minister showed how the representation of the southern States would not go down. The Lok Sabha will have 816 seats after delimitation. He said that in a House of existing 543 members, Karnataka has 28 seats, or 5.15% of MPs. After the Bill is passed, Karnataka’s share will become 42, and its percentage of seats in a Lok Sabha of 816 members will be 5.14%. Andhra Pradesh, with its 25 seats (4.60%), will have 38 MPs (4.65%). Likewise, Telangana’s 17 seats (3.13%) will become 26 (3.18%), Kerala’s 20 seats (3.68%) will touch 30 (3.67%), and Tamil Nadu’s 39 seats (7.18%) will become 59 (7.23%).

Mr. Shah said many MPs from Tamil Nadu have come wearing black clothes, but he reassured the people of the State that “your power is not decreasing, it is increasing.”

He said the number of Lok Sabha seats in the five southern States will go up from the existing 129 to 195, with the percentage share increasing from 23.76 % to 23.87%.

Participating in the debate, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the delimitation and said that “if the Constitution Amendment Bill is passed in Parliament, democracy will be finished in India.”

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, while expressing support for women’s reservation law, said it should be implemented only after the ongoing Census is complete.

The Home Minister will give his detailed reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday but the government will need the support from parties outside the National Democratic Alliance to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill since it requires two-thirds majority. In the current Lok Sabha strength of 540 members, the government needs the support of 360 members but is falling short by over 60 MPs.