Increasing the strength of Parliament’s lower house to 850 is a “joke”, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said, contending that it would turn it into a ‘desi’ version of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference, which was countered by BJP leaders.

Participating in the Stanford India Conference 2026 in California on Sunday (May 10, 2026), BJP leader Tejasvi Surya argued that delimitation was a “democratic necessity” to ensure more accountability from elected representatives and termed it “absurd” to allow composition of Parliament to remain frozen in time at 543 – the current strength of the Lok Sabha.

“The 1971 population cannot cater to a democracy of 140 crore people in 2026,” Mr. Surya, the Lok Sabha MP, countered Mr. Tharoor, who cited the example of the U.S. Congress which continues to have a strength of 435 members since 1929.

BJP leader K. Annamalai said the delimitation exercise was a “grand bargain” between the North and South Indian States before the outcome of the ongoing Census is made public.

Mr. Annamalai, the former Tamil Nadu BJP chief, said the total fertility rate of Tamil Nadu was among the lowest in India, and once the census numbers are released, the north Indian states would naturally deserve a larger number of MPs.

“Now this is a grand bargain between the north Indian states and south Indian states to come to a definite conclusion to arrive at a number in which nobody is losing,” he said.

The three leaders were participating in the session titled ‘India, That Is Bharat: Growth, Governance, and Identity’ at the two-day conference organised by the Stanford India Policy and Economic Club.

Mr. Tharoor, the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said a 850-member Lok Sabha chamber will become a “desi version of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference where you just stand up when the great leader comes and thump your desks”.

“You won’t have a chance to speak, argue, debate anything. 850 is a joke,” Mr. Tharoor said.

He said that the U.S. population has tripled since 1929, and still the strength of the U.S. House of Representatives has remained at 435 “because they recognise that you cannot have a debating chamber of 850”.

Mr. Tharoor, a member of the Congress Working Committee, said that the issue of women’s reservation cannot be linked to delimitation, and his party was ready to support reserving one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha for women as a standalone measure.

“Vote for it today. You can vote for it immediately. Don’t link it to delimitation. Have one-third reservation for women in today’s parliament and we will all vote for it,” the former Union Minister said.

Mr. Tharoor spoke in favour of waiting for the Census figures to be released between 2027 and 2029, and let that data lead to the delimitation.

“Probably around the time of the 2034 election, you’ll have a new map of India, politically. Between roughly 2027 and 2034, you need to have a profound debate about the future shape of this country for the next 50 years,” Mr. Tharoor said.

Stressing on the urgency of the delimitation exercise, Mr. Annamalai said he gets to see his Lok Sabha member only in newspapers as he represents anywhere between 22-30 lakh voters.

“It is impossible for a common citizen to actually go and meet the MP and get things done. So, not just because it is a constitutional mandate, delimitation should be done once in 10 years. It is also a democratic necessity because in the existing framework, there is no question of accountability as far as the elected representative is concerned,” Mr. Surya said.

“We want to make democracy accountable. We want to ensure that there is accountability between the voter and the elected and while doing all of this, we want to ensure that neither the North nor the South feels somebody has lost and somebody is unfairly given,” said Mr. Surya, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP.

Published – May 11, 2026 06:55 am IST

Think Tank BlueKraft Digital Foundation’s CEO, Akhilesh Mishra, said “The Modi government has fundamentally redefined Aatmnirbharta in defence acquisition,” and added, “Defence deals under Congress were a saga of scandal”.

He replied to BJP MP, Tejasvi Surya’s X post, who shared pictures from his sortie in Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40), a trainer aircraft built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and had called it a “symbol of the journey from the Congress-led UPA’s scandal to PM Modi’s self-reliance.” 

Replying to Mr Surya’s post, the BlueKraft CEO said, “There is a story here in this tweet apart from the pictures. Story of how every defence deal under Congress was a saga of scandal and loot. And how the Modi government has fundamentally redefined Aatmnirbharta in defence acquisition.”

There is a story here in this tweet apart from the pics.

Story of how EVERY defence deal under Congress was a saga of scandal and loot.

And how Modi government has fundamentally redefined Aatmnirbharta in defence acquisition.

HTT 40: Success of HAL. Commitment of PM Modi. https://t.co/rysRUmj9hM

— Akhilesh Mishra (@amishra77) February 13, 2025

Wearing a sand-coloured jumpsuit, and holding a pilot helmet, the BJP MP stood on the wing of the aircraft and posed for a picture with the test pilot of the HAL.

He shared pictures on his X handle and called it an “incredible experience”. “This aircraft is a testament to India’s engineering excellence and a shining example of how, with the right policy and support, our scientists and engineers can achieve anything.”

HAL’s HTT 40 : a symbol of India’s journey from UPA’s Scandal to Modi’s Self Reliance.

Today, I had the opportunity to fly in the HAL-manufactured indigenous Basic Trainer Aircraft HTT-40.

This aircraft has seen the light of day only because of the relentless efforts of PM… pic.twitter.com/FRLRCs8bXZ

— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) February 13, 2025

He said, “The HTT-40 represents India’s journey from scam to self-reliance, from foreign dependency to Atmanirbharta.” “This aircraft has seen the light of day only because of the relentless efforts of PM Modi and Late Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parikkar,” he added.

Mr Surya said in 2012, under the UPA government, India procured Swiss Pilatus trainer aircraft through a Rs 3,000 crore deal.

“Pilatus allegedly paid bribes using middlemen and offshore accounts-violating Indian law. The CBI later registered an FIR, and Pilatus was blacklisted in 2019. This decision not only compromised India’s indigenous capability but also led to the misuse of taxpayer money and middlemen thrived at the cost of national security,” he said.

The HTT-40, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the Indian Air Force (IAF), is a fully aerobatic aircraft, powered by a four-bladed turbo-prop engine, equipped with a state-of-the-art glass cockpit and the latest safety features, including a zero-zero ejection seat.

New Delhi:

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya is likely to get married to Sivasri Skandaprasad, a renowned Carnatic singer, soon. 

Though no official statement has been made from either side, several reports suggested that the BJP MP from Bangalore South is set to get engaged to and marry Ms Skandaprasad, who is based in Chennai. The wedding will reportedly be held in Bengaluru in March.

Mr Surya is a two-time Lok Sabha MP and President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. 

Ms Skandaprasad, who is a Bharatanatyam dancer, completed her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from Sastra University but chose to pursue a career in the arts. She reportedly earned a Bharatanatyam degree from the University of Madras.

She has over 1.13 lakh followers on Instagram and more than two lakh followers on YouTube.

Ahead of the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in January last year, PM Narendra Modi had also praised Ms Skandaprasad.

“This rendition by Sivasri Skandaprasad in Kannada beautifully highlights the spirit of devotion to Prabhu Shri Ram. Such efforts go a long way in preserving our rich cultural heritage. #ShriRamBhajan,” he wrote on X, as he shared the song.

This rendition by Sivasri Skandaprasad in Kannada beautifully highlights the spirit of devotion to Prabhu Shri Ram. Such efforts go a long way in preserving our rich cultural heritage. #ShriRamBhajanhttps://t.co/9wYmjhC4p5

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 16, 2024

Ms Skandaprasad responded to Mr Modi, saying: “Thank you so much sir. This is an honour beyond imagination. My pranams to you.”

Bengaluru:

The Karnataka High Court Thursday quashed a first information report (FIR) registered by the Karnataka High Court against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya in an alleged case of spreading fake news regarding the suicide of a farmer in Haveri district in the state.

Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order on a plea by Mr Surya seeking to quash the FIR.

On November 8 this year, Mr Surya had posted on his X handle that a farmer in the State had committed suicide after his land was taken over by the Waqf board.

“A farmer in Haveri commits suicide after finding his land taken over by Waqf! In their haste to appease minorities, CM Siddaramaiah and Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan have unleashed catastrophic effects in Karnataka that are becoming impossible to contain with every passing day,” his post read.

He had also posted links to a news story from a local portal that made such claim.

The police subsequently issued a clarification saying the farmer died by suicide due to mounting debts. Mr Surya was then booked by Haveri Cybercrime, Economic and Narcotic Offences Police, for spreading fake news under Section 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

According to the FIR, Mr Surya had stated that a farmer, identified as Rudrappa Channappa Balikai, died by suicide after finding that his land was “taken over by Waqf.”

Mr Surya also blamed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, accusing them of causing “catastrophic effects in Karnataka” in a post on X. This post has since been deleted.

Earlier, responding to an FIR filed against him, Tejasvi Surya had said that the Karnataka Congress government is attempting to “silence all those who are trying to expose the atrocities of the Waqf Board.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya completed the Ironman 70.3 challenge today. The triathlon challenge that was held in Goa comprised 1.9 km of swimming, 90 km of cycling, and 21.1 km of running with the participants travelling up to 113 kilometres (or 70.3 miles) during the whole event. With the feat, the 33-year-old became the first parliamentarian to participate in the event.

The Bengaluru South MP credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Fit India’ movement as the inspiration that led him to take up the challenge. The achievement drew praise from PM Modi himself who wrote on X, “Commendable feat! I am sure this will inspire many more youngsters to pursue fitness-related activities”.

Mr Surya said he trained rigorously over the last four months to improve his fitness.

“As a young nation chasing big ambitions, we must nurture our physical fitness and become a more healthier nation. An endeavour to become fit also makes you more disciplined and confident, which improves chances of your success in any venture that you undertake,” he posted on X.

Commendable feat!

I am sure this will inspire many more youngsters to pursue fitness related activities. https://t.co/zDTC0RtHL7

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 27, 2024

“As a finisher in this daunting challenge, I can attest to the young folks that fitness goals really push your boundaries, and make you a better individual. I appeal all fence sitters and perpetual planners to hop onto this journey and make progress,” he added.

In 2022, Tejasvi Surya participated in the Ironman 70.3 Goa as part of a relay team, completing the 90 km cycling segment.

The premier event for athletes and fitness enthusiasts has attracted athletes from more than 50 countries. This year’s race also featured over 120 competitors from Central and State Government services, with women making up 12-15 per cent of the athlete base. Remarkably, over 60 per cent of this year’s participants are first-time competitors, underscoring the event’s significant role in expanding the triathlon community in India.

New Delhi:

Actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut intended to target an opposition leader but mistakenly ended up attacking her BJP colleague instead. A similarity in names – Tejashwi and Tejasvi – was behind Ms Ranaut’s fumble. “There’s a party of spoilt princes… whether it’s Rahul Gandhi who wants to grow potatoes on the Moon, or Tejasvi Surya who does hooliganism and eats fish,” she had said.

RJD leader and former Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was supposed to be the original target of her diatribe as one of his videos where he was seen eating fish became a major flashpoint between the BJP and the opposition recently.

Tejasvi Surya, incorrectly referred to by Ms Ranaut during an election rally yesterday, is BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Bengaluru South constituency in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Mr Yadav has responded to a clip of Kangana Ranaut’s statement. “Ye mohtarma kaun hai?” (Who is this lady?), he posted on X.

ये मोहतरमा कौन है? https://t.co/RvTfHjm26I

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) May 4, 2024

Kangana Ranaut has been verbally bashing the Congress party since the BJP fielded her as their Lok Sabha candidate from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi. Congress leaders Vikramaditya Singh – her opponent in Mandi – and Rahul Gandhi have been the main targets on her dartboard.

While addressing a public rally in the Sundernagar area of Mandi Parliamentary Constituency yesterday, Ms Ranaut took a jibe at Mr Singh and Mr Gandhi over dynasty politics and said that both of them have a magic stick for development and talk only about non-practical things.

The Congress hit back saying the 37-year-old actor should first check the facts about her party leaders and speak about dynastic politics. National Media Coordinator for the Congress, Amrit Kaur, also questioned her qualifications on which she got a BJP ticket from Mandi.

The Mandi Lok Sabha constituency will go to polls on June 1, in the seventh phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Bengaluru:

A case has been filed against BJP’s Bengaluru South candidate and MP Tejasvi Surya for seeking votes on religious grounds.

The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer in a statement posted on the microblogging website X said Mr Surya had posted a video on social media “soliciting votes on the ground of religion”.

The case has been filed with Jayanagar police station in Bengaluru.

After voting, Mr Surya told reporters the Congress party may not win more than 30 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

“Congress party has become absolutely frustrated. Survey after survey shows that it may not win more than 30 seats… The more personal attacks and baseless allegations they make against the PM (Narendra Modi), history has shown that the Prime Minister has only got stronger and the BJP has only got more popular,” Mr Surya told news agency ANI.

The Congress has fielded Sowmya Reddy in the Bengaluru South constituency.

Mr Surya said more senior citizens are voting this year and urged young people to come out and vote in large numbers.

“Today is a celebration day in Karnataka. It is a festival of democracy. Millions of people will go out and vote… This is not just a right, but also a duty, because if we don’t vote, we are not registering our voice, and contributing meaningfully to a democracy,” he told ANI.

Karnataka voting on 14 seats today in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. This phase had 88 Lok Sabha constituencies across 13 states and Union Territories.

According to the Election Commission, over 15.88 crore people cast their votes in the second phase.

New Delhi:

The second of seven phases of the Lok Sabha polls will take place on Friday and the stage is set for exciting contests in some of the 88 constituencies across 13 states and Union Territories where votes will be cast.

Here’s A Look At Five Gripping Fixtures:

Rahul Gandhi Vs Annie Raja 

Polling will be carried out in all 20 seats in Kerala and the state will see some of the most-watched face-offs. In Wayanad, sitting MP and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will contest for the second time and his primary opponent in the largely bipolar state is the CPI’s Annie Raja. While it is unclear whether Mr Gandhi will also contest from Amethi, the Gandhi family bastion where he suffered a shock defeat in 2019 to the BJP’s Smriti Irani, winning this seat will be crucial for the Congress leader either way.

In 2019, Mr Gandhi had defeated the CPI candidate from Wayanad, PP Suneer, by a margin of over 4 lakh votes.

Ms Raja, a member of the national executive of the CPI and the wife of party general secretary D Raja, has criticised Rahul Gandhi and promised more consistent representation. The CPM-led LDF government in the state has also been critical of Mr Gandhi and the attacks against him have been led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, drawing counter-attacks from the Congress. 

The sharp exchanges are all the more significant given that the Congress and the Left Front are partners in the INDIA bloc at the Centre but are giving no quarter to each other in their battle in the state. The Congress had won 15 of the 20 seats in 2019.

Giving the contest another interesting dimension is that the BJP has fielded its state president K Surendran from Wayanad as part of a concerted effort to open its Lok Sabha account in the state and do better in the south in general. In an earlier interview with NDTV, Mr Surendran said he stood a good chance of winning the seat because people are disappointed with the work done by Rahul Gandhi. 

Shashi Tharoor Vs Rajeev Chandrasekhar

About 400 km south of Wayanad lies Kerala’s capital of Thiruvananthapuram, which is going to see a battle of heavyweights. The Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, a three-time MP from the constituency, will face off against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. 

Despite having held the seat for three terms, Mr Tharoor is seen as a popular MP and has previously said that the only way the BJP’s claim of winning seats in the double digits in Kerala can be true is if both digits are zero. “The issue with the BJP is that they don’t understand Kerala’s history and culture… Communalism cannot go beyond a small limit here,” he had said. 

Mr Chandrasekhar, who is making his electoral debut, has said Mr Tharoor has failed to get any work done in the constituency and that the contest would be between the “politics of performance” – a reference to the BJP-led central government’s work – and “15 years of non-performance”

The third most-watched candidate from the seat is the CPI’s Pannyan Raveendran, a veteran leader who was the MP from Thiruvananthapuram – winning a bypoll in 2005 – before Mr Tharoor began his winning streak. The CPI leader had also contested the Kerala Assembly polls in 2011, but lost to a Congress leader. 

KC Venugopal Vs AM Ariff

Alappuzha is the only seat in Kerala that the CPM had won in 2019 and what makes the constituency even more interesting is that it will see a contest between senior Congress leader KC Venugopal, who was elected from there in 2009 and 2014, and the sitting MP, the CPM’s AM Ariff.

Mr Venugopal, who is a Rajya Sabha MP and the General Secretary (Organisation) of the Congress, had decided not to contest the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 because he had larger responsibilities and said he is doing so this time because Congress workers want him to. 

The sitting MP, Mr Ariff, has released a 12-page booklet listing out his achievements, many of which have been claimed by the Congress and the BJP as their own. He has also dismissed the Congress’ claim of winning all 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and alleged that the party does this during every election.

The third key candidate in the seat is the BJP’s Sobha Surendran, who has said the people will vote for her to make her part of PM Narendra Modi’s team. “During the UPA tenure, India’s economy was down like those of Pakistan and Sri Lanka in recent times. But ten years under Narendra Modi’s rule and India has become the fifth largest economy,” she was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Arun Govil vs Sunita Verma 

Over in Uttar Pradesh, eight of whose 80 constituencies are going to the polls in the second phase, Meerut is seeing a fight in which one of the contestants is being worshipped, literally, by some supporters. The BJP’s Arun Govil played the role of Lord Ram in the popular TV series Ramayan and, despite the godlike status accorded to him by some, he faces a tough contest in the seat from the Samajwadi Party’s Sunita Verma and the BSP’s Devvrat Tyagi. 

Mr Govil, who is making his electoral debut and lives in Mumbai, has been criticised for being an outsider and has admitted that he does not have a very strong understanding of local issues, but has promised to move to Meerut and speak to people to understand their problems after he is elected. The BJP, which had won 62 of UP’s 80 constituencies in 2019, will be fancying its chances in Meerut where it has been on a winning streak since 2009 and has won a total of six times. 

The main contender against Mr Govil is the Samajwadi Party’s Sunita Verma, who is a former mayor of the city. The finalisation of the face by the party, however, was a long-drawn-out affair and involved two declared candidates – Bhanu Pratap Singh and Atul Pradhan – being dropped. Ms Verma was earlier with the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Tejasvi Surya Vs Sowmya Reddy

The Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency, which has elected only BJP candidates since 1991, will see a battle between Tejasvi Surya and the Congress’ Sowmya Reddy. Mr Surya was elected with a margin of over 3 lakh votes in 2019, but the Congress is hoping that Ms Reddy’s pedigree – she is the daughter of state transport minister Ramalinga Reddy – and the party’s winning performance in the Assembly polls last year will swing things in its favour.

Mr Surya, 33, who is the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP,  has expressed confidence that his work towards improving Bengaluru’s infrastructure will win him another term. Another thing that is working in the BJP’s favour is that the Congress has emerged victorious in the constituency only once since 1977, when former chief minister R Gundu Rao was elected in the 1989 Lok Sabha polls. 

Ms Reddy, 41, is banking on the Congress’ guarantees, which had helped it win last year’s Assembly elections, to help it buck the trend. The Congress leader is a former MLA from Jayanagar and lost the constituency by just 16 votes was heart-broken when she lost by a mere 16 votes in her re-election bid in this city constituency in the Assembly elections last year.

Claiming that people are disappointed with Mr Surya because he has not been accessible and did not speak up for Karnataka in Parliament, Ms Reddy told PTI, “All he (Mr Surya) has been doing is spreading hate and doing divisive politics.” 

Bengaluru:

Congress leader Soumya Reddy, who is set to take on BJP’s Tejasvi Surya in the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha contest, has sought the Election Commission’s intervention amid allegations that students are being pressured to attend the BJP leader’s nomination rally.

In a post on X, Ms Reddy has shared screenshots of WhatsApp messages that the Congress claims were posted on groups of college students, asking them to join Mr Surya’s nomination rally today. One of the messages says “no excuses will be entertained” and that those attending the rally will get t-shirts. The message also assures the students that they will get attendance for this.

Ms Reddy has also tagged a social media post by the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) on the issue. The IYC post shares a screenshot of a tweet in which a student has claimed that the president of his institution’s student council is threatening them against skipping the rally.

One of the screenshot shows a member of the WhatsApp group asking why attendance is mandatory. Another user replies that Mr Surya had accepted the student council’s request to attend the college’s fest and “now it’s our turn to do the same”.

The IYC has questioned why students are being told to compulsorily attend a political programme. “Isn’t this a violation of the code of conduct?” it asked. Sharing IYC’s post, Ms Reddy has tagged the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka and said, “Request action to be taken.”

Mr Surya, who will be filing his nomination papers, today has not responded to the allegations. His office has, however, posted clips of youngsters saying they were excited to join the BJP MP’s nomination rally.

Mr Surya is sitting MP from Bangalore South, a BJP stronghold earlier held by veteran leader and Union Minister, the late Ananth Kumar, for two decades. In the 2019 election, Mr Surya defeated the Congress’s BK Hariprasad by a margin of over 3 lakh votes. 

Ms Reddy is the daughter of Karnataka minister Ramalinga Reddy and a former MLA from Jayanagar, one of the eight Assembly segments under the Bangalore South parliamentary constituency.