Opinion: The proposal to redraw and expand the Lok Sabha on the basis of the 2021 Census treats representation as a simple headcount. It is nothing of the sort. Delimitation on population alone would penalise the southern states that curbed their fertility and reward those that did not — breaking a decades-old constitutional bargain. It must be negotiated, with seat floors and compensatory mechanisms, not simply imposed.
Redrawing Lok Sabha seats by population is democratically intuitive, but pushing delimitation through without a fresh federal understanding risks deepening a north-south divide. The process needs consensus as much as arithmetic.
