Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Wednesday urged the Union Government to permanently retain the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats and freeze the current inter-State allocation of seats, warning that any delimitation based on a post-1971 Census could penalise southern States for their success in population control.
Moving a resolution, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said Tamil Nadu and other States had, for nearly five decades, had their parliamentary and Assembly representation determined on the basis of the 1971 Census. Elections had consequently been conducted within this framework.
The resolution comes against the backdrop of the failed Constitution Amendment Bill introduced in Parliament in April 2026, which sought to lift the five-decade freeze on delimitation, undertake delimitation based on the 2011 Census and raise the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 850.
The Assembly, which adopted the resolution, noted that the proposed legislation could be reintroduced and expressed concern that delimitation based on any Census conducted after 1971 could permanently alter the parliamentary representation of southern States, including Tamil Nadu.
The resolution argued that States that had successfully implemented population-control measures, achieved economic growth and strengthened healthcare and welfare systems should not be disadvantaged for having stabilised their populations.
It therefore called upon the Union Government to make the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats permanent and retain the present inter-State distribution of seats.
Tamil Nadu also demanded that the current Lok Sabha-Rajya Sabha strength ratio of 2.2:1 be maintained.
In a significant addition, the Assembly urged the Centre to implement the 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha without delay, beginning with the 2029 general election, based on the existing strength of 543 seats.
It also sought the extension of the one-third reservation for women to subsequent elections to State Legislative Assemblies.
The resolution reinforced Tamil Nadu's long-standing opposition to population-based delimitation alongside a demand for early implementation of women's reservation—seeking to ensure that the two issues are not made contingent on an expansion or redrawing of the Lok Sabha.
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