Govt likely to bring delimitation Bill in next session, eyes DMK, TMC breakaway support

The Centre is likely to introduce the delimitation Bill in the upcoming monsoon session, with sources indicating that key INDIA bloc constituents, DMK and TMC breakaway faction, are understood to have been taken into confidence informally on the matter.

While the DMK is miffed with the Congress’ post-poll tie-up with the TVK in Tamil Nadu, 58 rebel Trinamool MLAs have seized control of the party in West Bengal.

The sources said the proposed Bill would seek to set up a new delimitation commission as the tenure of the current commission, which was set up in 2002, is ending in December 2026. Also, with the Census already having begun, the new commission will take into consideration the data to be collated by the 2027 counting exercise to suggest delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies.

The move comes two months after the government, during the Budget session, had unsuccessfully tried to bring a delimitation Bill clubbed with the proposed 131st Constitution Amendment Bill, aiming to delink Census from delimitation.

The aim was to redistribute Lok Sabha seats on the basis of the 2011 Census to expedite the implementation of women’s reservation.

However, the Constitution Amendment Bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha after 298 MPs voted in its favour and 230 against it. As the Lok Sabha strength at the time of voting stood at 528, the Bill failed to secure the two-thirds majority mark of 352 required for a Constitution Amendment Bill to pass.

Following the defeat, the government withdrew the two other related legislations—the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Delimitation Bill, 2026—which were linked to the constitutional amendment.

It had also laid to rest the government’s proposal of raising Lok Sabha seats by 50 per cent on the basis of the 2011 Census data.