The southern states will get a fair share of any seat addition, the Union Home Minister said, and they will not be hurt by delimitation exercise due anytime soon

Delimitation means the process of determining the number of seats and the boundaries of territorial constituencies for each state in the legislative and Lok Sabha assemblies.

This "delimitation process" is carried out by the "Delimitation Commission", which was set up by a parliamentary act.

Commission for Delimitation: It is a three member powerful body and its decision cannot be challenged in the court

Two judges of the Supreme Court or High Court - Chairman appointed by the national government - Chief Election Commissioner as ex-officio member

It cannot alter its directions but submits them to the State and Lok Sabha Assemblies.

Why are Southern states so concerned about the upcoming delineation?

Loss of representation: If population alone is used for delimitation, the low population of Southern states in comparison with Northern states would mean fewer seats in the Lok Sabha.

For instance, in Kerala, the number of seats increased by 0%, in Tamil Nadu by 26%, but in MP and UP by 79%.

The manipulation of electoral boundaries to give an electoral advantage to a party or other group at the expense of fair representation is a Southern problem.

For instance, the Terai in Nepal, home to half the country’s population, got fewer seats than the hills under the country’s 2015 constitution because constituency demarcation prioritized geography over population, benefiting the hill elite.

Federalism is undermined: Since the northern states might receive higher central allocations per representative, delimitation could put greater financial pressure on the South.

But southern states may also feel pressured to adopt policies that they see as unfair because they have less political representation than northern states.

Disincentives to Good Governance: Since the Southern states have been pursuing population control measures, delimitation may result in fewer seats, which would be unfair to the high-fertility states and would discourage good governance.

But sometimes it backfires and leads to attacks on effective policies. For example, some lawmakers considered offering incentives to have larger families.

Divisions between the North and the South would deepen and national unity would be put to the test if politics and economic imbalance spurred demands for more autonomy or special status.

Resources may be unevenly distributed: As the northern states become more powerful in parliament, they will get more central funds and welfare programs. In contrast, southern states, which have better governance, may get fewer resources.

One of the criteria the FC uses to divide up the money among the states is population, which works against southern states.

De-facto Unions: Some say delimitation will favour parties with strong northern bases and will fundamentally change the political landscape, making regional parties in the south weaker.