New Delhi: With an increasing buzz around delimitation ahead of 2026, After the 2001 census, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had put delimitation on hold for 25 years. After 2025, this period ends, and the process starts again. However, there is growing fear in southern states, particularly Tamil Nadu, following MK Stalin’s statement on February 25 that Tamil Nadu could lose 8 Lok Sabha seats due to delimitation.
So go ahead and learn what delimitation is and how allocating seats works. Delimitation is designed mainly to ensure balanced population-based representation in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. Once India won independence, the persons draughting its constitution decided that the allotment of seats in both Lok Sabha and State Assemblies should be by population, leading to delimitation.
Thus far, we have constituted four delimitation commissions and enhanced Lok Sabha seats based on population. By 2026, India is projected to have a population of 1.5 billion. The number of seats is likely to change in the south, however, as the debate plays out among states. Karnataka, for example, is set to have a rise of likely eight seats, coming up to 36 Lok Sabha seats from the current 28; Telangana from 17 to 20; Andhra Pradesh from 25 to 28; and Tamil Nadu from 39 to 41. On the other hand, Kerala might lose a seat, leading to a reduction in its seat count to 20 from 19. More than 40 continue to be the seats allotted to BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, which could be a significant jump from the current 80 to 128 and double in Bihar from 40 to 70 seats, experts said from the northern states. As a result, there has been significant pushback in the southern states.
Delimitation ensures that every constituency has virtually the same number of voters based on population change. The idea is to ensure that more populous states are better represented in Parliament than less populous ones.
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