Union Home Minister Amit Shah said a “completely false” narrative is being circulated claiming that the representation of southern states in the Lok Sabha would decline after its strength is raised to 816 seats following the implementation of women’s reservation and constituency delimitation.
Intervening in the Lok Sabha debate on three bills to amend the women’s quota law and establish a delimitation commission, Amit Shah said the reality is that the number of seats will increase, leading to greater overall representation.
He said the number of Lok Sabha seats in the five southern states will go up from the present 129 to 195 seats while the percentage of power will increase from 23.76 per cent to 23.87 or almost 24 per cent.
"Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka will increase to 42 from the present 28; in Andhra Pradesh, the number of Lok Sabha sets will increase to 38 from 25; in Telangana, it will be 26 from present 17; in Tamil Nadu, the number of Lok Sabha seats will go up to 59 from the present 39; and in Kerala, it will be 30 seats from the present 20," he said.
Shah strongly rejected the opposition suggestion that the government will indulge in some kind of "mischief" during the delimitation exercise, saying the NDA government has not made any changes in the existing law.
"The delimitation bill is exactly like the previous law brought by your government. There is no change, not even a comma or a full stop," he said.
Explaining how the total number of seats in the new Lok Sabha is fixed at 816, the home minister said it is exactly 50 per cent more than the current total seats.
(With inputs from PTI)
