Delimitation: NCP(SP) to back bill if LS seats increased by 50% for all states, says Supriya Sule

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) will support the Union government’s proposed delimitation bill if it provides for a 50% increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states, party leader Supriya Sule said on Wednesday.

Her remarks came amid reports that some NCP(SP) leaders favour a tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra.

The speculation intensified after leaders of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party faction, which is part of the state’s ruling coalition, and the NCP(SP) held a meeting at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ residence. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP group is part of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance that includes Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction and the Congress.

Sule’s remarks also came ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which will begin on July 20.

In April, the NCP(SP) was among the Opposition parties that voted against the 2026 Constitution 131st Amendment Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha. The draft legislation proposed to amend the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act and redraw the boundaries of electoral constituencies.

The bill, one of the three draft legislations that were introduced, required a two-thirds majority of votes in Parliament to pass. The ruling National Democratic Alliance does not have a two-thirds majority of MPs in any House. Therefore, it required the support of Opposition parties to pass the amendment.

The consideration of the bill was rejected by the Lok Sabha with 298 MPs voting in its favour and 230 against. With 528 MPs present in the Lower House, the bill would have required the support of 352 of them.

After the bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha, the government withdrew the two other legislations, saying that they were linked and therefore could not be taken up for consideration separately.

On Wednesday, Sule told reporters that her party’s position on the delimitation bill had not changed.

“If the Union government amends the Delimitation Bill by bringing a 50% increase in seats, then we will support it,” she said. “This is not something new that I am saying. We have always maintained that we will support the bill if these amendments are brought.”

She added that her party, along with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Samajwadi Party, had earlier stated that they would consider supporting the legislation if it incorporated the demand for a 50% increase in seats.

Sule added that once the bill is introduced, the NCP(SP) will discuss it with other parties in the Opposition INDIA bloc.

“We will take a collective decision,” she said. “It is important that the delimitation formula is also presented to us and we are told how new demarcation will be done.”

A contentious bill

The bill introduced by the Union government in April sought to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha to 815 from 543 and to operationalise the 33% quota for women in the Lower House and the Assemblies under the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act.

The INDIA bloc had said at the time that while it supports women’s reservation, it will oppose the bill for delimitation of Lok Sabha seats.

Opposition parties have said that population-based delimitation would give an undue advantage to northern and central states in the Lok Sabha, as the proportion of seats in the North would be higher. They also noted that the ruling BJP has greater support in northern states than in the South.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• How Modi government aims to use women’s representation to expand Lok Sabha using 2011 census numbers
• Why delimitation in Assam and Kashmir led to charges of gerrymandering
• The delimitation trap: Is India moving towards the Chinese model of domesticating debate?