In an exclusive interview, Naidu said, “The NDA government will bring the Delimitation Bill and introduce women’s reservation soon. It is the need of the hour if we want to introduce reservation of women in politics. This has my full support.” Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party (TDP) provides the crucial support of 16 MPs to BJP-led NDA, accused the Opposition of unnecessarily making an issue of 50% proportional increase “omission” from the original Bill. “The intention of the government was absolutely clear from the beginning. The government stated it on the floor of the House that there will be 50% increase of seats across the states and the proportion of seats will not change. There was only a matter of omission from the text of the Bill. The Opposition unnecessarily made it an issue.” The government had called a special session of Parliament in April and introduced Constitution (131st Amendment Bill) 2026, a key legislative package to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850 and link delimitation to 2011 Census. However, the bills were defeated as the government did not have the required two-thirds majority. This is the first confirmation from the NDA camp of the government’s intent to bring the Bills again in Parliament.
Naidu said the government will be able to pass the legislative package now. “The political circumstances have changed *in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. I think it will be easy to push the legislations now,” said Naidu. The regional parties from the south have been protesting against linking the delimitation exercise to the 2011 Census saying the southern states will be punished for implementing family planning measures. However, with the inclusion of 50% proportional increase in seats across states in the new Bills, this fear will be addressed. With Trinamool Congress splitting and 20 MPs jumping ship and DMK’s main concern of southern states being punished addressed, the legislative package is likely to pass the muster.
Naidu drew parallels with the formula followed by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001. “I was also responsible for then Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee freezing the number of seats in 2001. I told the Prime Minister that population is declining in South India so he should not link it to the latest Census because southern states will be punished. He accepted that the exercise should be linked to 1971 Census and froze the seats till after 2026. But now we need to address this problem again,” said Naidu.
