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New Delhi: If we add a flat 50% increase to Kerala, its seats go from 20 to 30. Then each seat from the state will have, on the basis of the 2011 census (population 3.34 crore), roughly 11.1 lakh people.

If we add, again, 50% to Uttar Pradesh, its seats go from 80 to 120. But because population growths have been vastly different, each seat from there will have, on the basis of the 2011 census (population 19.98 crore), roughly 16.6 lakh people. That is a massive discrepancy of over 5.5 lakh people per constituency.

The new delimitation bills have been brought in to ensure that the population per Lok Sabha seat is the same. This will not be the case if this “50% increase” takes place.

We need a more sophisticated formula to account for increased populations, but also to protect the proportional representation of states that successfully implemented family planning. Just relying on raw population growth, as the new law mandates, does not make the cut.

But leaders from the BJP and allied parties continue to sell this illusion. Key alliance partner Chandrababu Naidu may be emerging as the turkey who is praying for Christmas. Andhra Pradesh may gain ‘numbers’ but they will be of no consequence, as Andhra Pradesh will lose its share of voice in the republic.

Leaders from the ruling alliance, such as Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, are suggesting that a uniform mathematical increase in Lok Sabha seats will protect southern representation. Naidu has publicly backed the Union government’s approach, telling Economic Times that the number of seats will be “doubled”, that the formula was finalised in a “scientific manner”, and assuring voters that “you have........

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