The Economic Times

Delimitation & women reservation bill: Southern states backs 50% seat hike, seeks share status quo

With the introduction of the two bills - one on delimitation and another an amendment bill for delinking implementation of women's reservation from the ongoing census - the government is set to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats by 50% for each state for the first time since 1976. With this, it has addressed the concerns raised by southern states, including key NDA ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which have pointed out that linking delimitation with population density punishes them for better implementation of family planning measures. The exercise, however, is unlikely to address the biggest issue of vote parity or one person, one vote and one value pending since the 1970s.