Explained: What India Will Look Like After 2026 Delimitation
The Women's Reservation Bill, once implemented, will redraw the electoral map of India. The census and delimitation exercise that will precede the implementation of reservation, is expected to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to a whopping 753. The biggest jump, as expected, will be in Uttar Pradesh, which already sends the largest number of MPs to Parliament. The southern states are likely to have a marginal rise, pushing them further back in terms of representation and electoral heft. Based on those numbers, the Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka are expected to increase from 28 to 36 in 2026 -- a jump of just eight seats. The number of seats in Telangana will rise from 17 to 20, Andhra Pradesh from 25 to 28 and Tamil Nadu from 39 to 41.In 2026, the estimated population of India will be 1.42 billion and this data will be crucial for delimitation, which redraws the boundaries of a constituency on basis of its population. The case of Kerala, which has controlled populatio