Earlier this year, the Union government introduced the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, which inter alia proposed to increase the size of the Lok Sabha, remove the freeze on the allocation of seats to States, and advance the implementation of women’s reservation. The Bill was accompanied by the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which sought to initiate the process of delimitation of parliamentary and State Legislative Assembly constituencies. Although this legislative package was not passed, reports indicate that the Union Government may reintroduce it in Parliament.
Charkha has previously examined the constitutional implications of this legislative package, including its impact on the representation of States, the process of delimitation, and the implementation of women’s reservation. This Note focuses specifically on a question that has received comparatively limited attention: what are the implications of an expanded Lok Sabha? It examines these implications along four axes: people and representation, impact on States, government accountability, and practical consequences.
- People and representation: An expanded Lok Sabha would significantly reduce the average number of constituents represented by a Member of Parliament (“MP”). However, if the existing proportion of seats among States is retained, the population-to-MP ratio would continue to vary considerably across States, raising questions about the objective of ‘one person, one vote, one value’.
- Impact on States: Each State would gain seats while retaining its relative proportion in the House. However, increasing the Lok Sabha without a corresponding increase in the Rajya Sabha would alter the numerical balance between the two Houses, reducing the relative weight of the Council of States, particularly during joint sittings.
- Government accountability: An expanded Lok Sabha could enhance oversight of the government through scrutiny of Bills, debates, questions to Ministers, and voting on legislation. However, these benefits are contingent on meaningful deliberations, regular sittings of the Lok Sabha, and adequate opportunities for MPs to participate in the proceedings of the House, each of which presently faces constraints.
- Practical consequences: An expanded Lok Sabha would carry substantial financial, administrative and institutional consequences, including increased expenditure and the need for greater parliamentary capacity.
The Note argues that 850 seats cannot be considered as a question of numbers alone. Parliament must develop a principled and durable framework for determining the appropriate size of the Lok Sabha and consider the corresponding institutional reforms necessary to make an expanded House effective. It recommends that the proposal, if reintroduced, must be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee for detailed examination.
For more research on delimitation in India and other constitutional questions, explore the work of Charkha, the Constitutional Law Centre at Vidhi, linked below.
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About the Authors
Swapnil is the Lead at Charkha (Centre for Constitutional Law) at Vidhi. His areas of specialisation are judicial review and constitutional interpretation, with a particular focus on Public Interest Litigation. He read law at the NLU, Jodhpur, and thereafter pursued the BCL and the DPhil at the University of Oxford. He has worked with leading academics on projects involving constitutional reform and democratic transitions, and has also assisted in drafting constitutions for various bodies. His academic writing spans both peer-reviewed journals and public-facing platforms, including a fortnightly column for Bar & Bench titled 'Tryst with the Constitution'. Committed to constitutional literacy, he runs The Basic Structure, a widely read blog that simplifies constitutional law for general audiences. He also collaborates with students across universities to establish forums on constitutional law. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, nominated in recognition of his work in the United Kingdom.
Mansi is a Research Fellow with Charkha, Centre for Constitutional Law at Vidhi. She has completed her LLM from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, where her dissertation research focused on regulation of hate speech on social media platforms and the use of generative AI in digital electoral campaigns. She was previously a student at National Law University, Jodhpur, from where she graduated with B.A. LL.B. (Constitutional Law Hons.) in 2024. As an intern with the Ministry of Law and Justice’s Project e-Nyayaganga: Digital Legal Literacy – Design, Development, Management and Testing (National Level), Mansi worked on preparation of handbooks and primers to simplify labour laws, laws on children’s rights and criminal laws in English and Hindi. Her academic interests include Constitutional Law, Environmental Law and Election Law.
