‘No State will lose current proportional strength’

All States will have their number of Lok Sabha seats increase by half after delimitation, and no State will lose its current proportional strength in Parliament, a senior government functionary said.

He said that Home Minister Amit Shah would clarify this in the Parliament when the debate on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill and the Delimitation Bill opens on Thursday (April 16).

The drafts of the Bills have raised concerns that States that have stabilized their populations are set to lose relative strength when the composition of the Lok Sabha is reapportioned among States based on the latest census figures.

Mr. Shah had assured party representatives, who met him in recent weeks, that the strength of the Lok Sabha would increase by 50%, to be distributed across States in their existing proportions — that is, a 50% increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats from each individual State. However, this is not mentioned in the government’s circulated drafts of the Bills.