A political storm is brewing in India, with the first waves already hitting the southern part of the country.

Leaders there are calling for mass mobilisation to protect the region's political interests amid a heated controversy over the redrawing of electoral seats to reflect changes in population over time.

In a high-stakes push, they are urging citizens to "have more children", using meetings and media campaigns to amplify their message: that the process of delimitation could shift the balance of power.

"Delimitation is a Damocles' sword hanging over southern India," says MK Stalin, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, one of India's five southern states, and an arch rival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). (The other four are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana.)

These five states account for 20% of India's 1.4 billion people. They also outperform the rest of the country in health, education and economic prospects. A child is less likely to be born here than in the north, due to lower population growth rates.

Their leaders are worried that the more prosperous south may lose parliamentary seats in the future, a "punishment" for having fewer children and generating more wealth. Wealthier southern states have always contributed more to federal revenue, with poorer, highly populated states in the north receiving larger shares based on need.

India's Constitution mandates that seats be allocated to each state based on its population, with constituencies of roughly equal size. It also requires reallocation of seats after each census, reflecting updated population figures.

So India redrew parliamentary seats three times based on the decennial census in 1951, 1961 and 1971. Since then, governments of all stripes have paused the exercise, fearing an imbalance of representation due to varying fertility rates across states.

The next delimitation exercise is set for 2026, but uncertainty looms as India hasn't conducted a census since 2011, with no clear timeline for when it will take place.

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