Hans News Service Vijayawada

IT and HRD minister Nara Lokesh on Wednesday strongly defended Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s stand on delimitation, countering Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and arguing that expanding the Lok Sabha while retaining states’ existing proportional share of seats is both fair and constitutionally justified.

In a post on X, Lokesh said the constitutional freeze on seat allocation based on the 1971 Census was always temporary and is due to expire after 2026. He argued that without corrective measures, southern states could face a reduction in their share of representation and blamed the Congress for opposing constitutional changes that could have addressed the issue.

Stating that India’s population has grown from about 55 crore in 1971 to nearly 146 crore today, Lokesh said Lok Sabha expansion is a democratic necessity as MPs now represent far more citizens than they did when the freeze was imposed.

He maintained that increasing seats while preserving the existing proportional share of all states would protect states that successfully implemented population control measures while ensuring improved representation for citizens across the country.

The remarks came in response to Tharoor’s criticism of Chandrababu Naidu’s support for a 50 per cent increase in Lok Sabha seats. Tharoor argued that even with proportional increases, larger states would gain significantly greater political influence due to their higher number of MPs.

Rejecting that argument, Lokesh said parliamentary equations remain unchanged if all states receive the same proportional increase in representation, adding that no state gains an advantage when the proportional balance is maintained.