Amid opposition from some political parties, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) passed a resolution urging the Union government to freeze the number of Lok Sabha seats at the existing 543 and retain the current proportion of inter-State distribution of seats.

The resolution also emphasised maintaining the current Lok Sabha-Rajya Sabha ratio of 2.2:1, while simultaneously implementing 33% reservation for women in the 2029 Lok Sabha based on the existing 543 seats and subsequent Assembly elections without any delay.

Moving the resolution, Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay said it reflected the concerns of women in every family. Tamil Nadu had many women of distinction who had been part of its identity from the Sangam era to the present day.

“We must create opportunities for women to advance in politics. Reservation for women is not a concession. It is a matter of social justice and a constitutional right,” Mr. Vijay said.

CM on women’s political representation

He said women, who constitute nearly half of India’s population, should be given equal status at all levels. He also pointed out that voter turnout among women in Tamil Nadu was higher than that among men. However, in terms of political representation, there were only 12 women among the 234 MLAs in the previous Assembly, and the number had now increased to 23.

Even though the number had nearly doubled, there had not been a significant increase in the share of women representatives in the Assembly in percentage terms, the Chief Minister said.

He said that in 2023, Parliament had passed the 106^th Constitutional Amendment Act, providing for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and all State Legislative Assemblies. However, the Centre had said that the Act would come into effect only after the population census, followed by the delimitation exercise.

Further, the Union government introduced the 131^st Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2026, and the Delimitation Bill, 2026. On April 17, 2026, the Bill failed to secure the support of two-thirds of the members in the Lok Sabha.

Although a law providing one-third reservation for women in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies has been passed, the delay in implementing it has created a situation in which the objective of the legislation could remain unfulfilled for years. This amounted to denying women their political rights. Therefore, women’s reservation should not be linked to the population census and delimitation, he said.

When the proposed delimitation exercise was discussed at a meeting of Tamil Nadu MPs on August 8, it was pointed out that even if the number of Lok Sabha members in each State was increased by 50%, the constituencies would subsequently be reorganised based on the population of each State after the 2026 Census. If this was done, the number of parliamentary representatives from the southern States could decline substantially, he said.

This would result in a major political representational injustice to Tamil Nadu and other southern States that had successfully implemented population-control measures, Mr. Vijay said.

Udhayanidhi recalls DMK’s role

Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin, in his speech, said the DMK was the first political party in India to flag the dangers that could arise from the proposed delimitation. He recalled the measures taken by the then Chief Minister M.K. Stalin over the last two years, including the conduct of an all-party meeting, writing letters to the Chief Ministers and leaders of political parties in various States, and constituting a Joint Action Group for Fair Delimitation with the Chief Ministers of all five southern States.

On April 16, 2026, Mr. Stalin burnt the Delimitation Bill. The DMK played a key role in ensuring that the Bill was defeated in Parliament, Mr. Udhayanidhi said, reiterating that the DMK’s position was that the existing status quo should be extended for more than 25 years. He also said his party welcomes the 33% reservation for women.

AIADMK opposes resolution

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured in Parliament that Tamil Nadu’s proportional representation of 7.18% would not be reduced even if there was an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats. “There was nothing wrong with undertaking delimitation at this stage. However, it should be done without reducing Tamil Nadu’s representation below 7.18%,” he said.

He also recalled the efforts made by his party to provide reservation for women in Parliament. “At a time when there were no indications that the Union government was going to introduce the Delimitation Bill, the TVK-led government had brought the resolution merely to create political sensation,” Mr. Palaniswami alleged.

The AIADMK, the PMK, the DMDK, and the BJP opposed the resolution while other parties including the DMK supported it.

Published – August 12, 2026 01:43 pm IST