By Arun Srivastava
North India’s demographic size and Hindi-Hindu majority have long helped propel RSS’s ideological mission and the electoral dominance of the BJP since 2014, such as unifying the Hindu majority and advancing a unified cultural identity of “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan”. While the RSS aims to deform the secular and socialist foundations of the Indian constitution, it intends to use ‘delimitation’ as the first constitutional step to change the basic character and identity of India to Hindu Rashtra.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Delimitation Bill, which would once again be introduced in the Parliament in the ensuing Monsoon Session, is a significant component of RSS/BJP camp’s divisive politics, designed to permanently alter the character of the Parliament, the parliamentary system and decisively shift parliamentary strength toward the Hindi-speaking northern heartland; especially, the believers of saffron politics of Hindutva. Saffron ecosystem is quite aware of the fact that unless they bring about drastic change in the parliamentary system, they cannot aspire to accomplish their mission of transforming India towards officially declaring Hindu Rashtra.
RSS and BJP maintain a public posture that delimitation is a constitutionally mandated process of redrawing electoral constituencies, not a step toward turning India into a Hindu Rashtra. That’s simply an eye wash. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has tried to sow confusion in the minds of Indians by saying that delimitation will be applied on a pro-rata or proportionate basis. Pro rata or proportionate delimitation is the method of assigning or increasing something in proportion to a specific baseline or share. In the current political context, the “pro rata delimitation” refers to the proposal of expanding the total number of legislative seats across all states by an equal, proportional percentage.
The primary objective of delimitation is to satisfy the democratic principle of “one person, one vote” by adjusting constituencies so that each legislator represents a roughly equal number of people. However, this gives rise to a pertinent question, whether this exercise could be undertaken without undertaking an in-depth census exercise. The Election Commission of has only recently carried out SIR in West Bengal under the direction of Modi and Amit Shah and deleted names of millions of voters from the voters’ list. There is no certainty that they would benefit from the primary objective of delimitation of one person one vote. The saffron ecosystem will twist and distort the delimitation exercise to suit its electoral needs.
India’s population has grown from 55 crore in 1971 to approximately 146 crore in 2026. Delimitation is designed to update the electoral map to account for massive demographic changes. While delimitation is a legal duty, it is highly controversial for different reasons. Firstly, North vs. South representation. Northern states (like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) have experienced higher population growth. Readjusting seats based on current populations is expected to significantly increase their representation in Parliament, while potentially diminishing the political weight of Southern states that successfully implemented family planning. Modi introduced the Delimitation Bill and the Constitution Bill to expand the Lok Sabha’s total capacity (up to 850 seats). This expansion aims to hold the number of existing seats in southern states steady while granting the newly apportioned seats to the north.
Though the saffron ecosystem never publicly admits of dividing India into north and south, it nurses the clear perception that for ruling India, it must have the north India under its belt. This is also admission of the fact that RSS and BJP cannot emerge as a strong force in south India with its current parliamentary strength. For having a strong base in a particular region, the political party must imbibe the desire and aspiration of the people of that region. RSS would never attain this objective. It is already identified as a party of Hindi-speaking Hindus. RSS for decades have been active in south India, enrolled huge cadres, but has not so far succeeded in creating a strong electoral base for BJP.
It’s coming to power under B S Yediyurappa in Karnataka must not be construed as its having a strong anchor in the state. BJP came to power exploiting the strained relations between the Vokaligga and Lingayat communities. Though RSS general secretary, second in command, Dattatreya Hosabale, hails from Karnataka and the state has produced a number of prominent BJP leaders, it is a fact that politics of Hindutva could not make much impact in the state. Saffron ecosystem has been striving hard in Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, but it could not connect with the Malayali or Telugu people.
However, a population-based delimitation will penalize the southern states that successfully implemented family planning and population control policies, while rewarding northern states that failed to implement the government policies and experienced higher demographic growth. Pro rata delimitation will reduce the political representation and voice of the southern states in the Lok Sabha, potentially making them powerless and politically less relevant. Even within the states, constituency boundaries were redrawn in Jammu& Kashmir and Assam to alter the demographic balance and diminish the representation of specific communities, even though, technically, delimitation is a constitutional mandate to ensure equal representation for all citizens based on updated census data. But the saffron intention behind the move is dangerous and ominous.
RSS-BJP claim that delimitation would be a fair exercise, but the fact remains that it is a mechanism that threatens federal balance. It would not only widen north-south imbalance, but also further disempower the minority populations within the country. A population-based reallocation of Lok Sabha seats will concentrate political power in the Hindu-Hindi heartland. Regional parties and leaders from the South argue this would diminish the voice of their states in national policymaking, thus undermining the federal equilibrium established decades ago. The suggestion of some government officials that delimitation exercise would apply a proportional increase (such as 50%) to seats across all states, aiming to preserve the relative proportion of seats and ensure no state is left disadvantaged is evidently wrong. Uttar Pradesh, for example, with its present 80 seats would get an increase of 40, taking the total to 120. But in case of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, the increase will far less, thereby reducing the cumulative strength of the southern states in Parliament.
Modi and the BJP’s Delimitation Bill, put forward in April 2026, is a structural reset of India’s electoral map designed to end the 50-year freeze on parliamentary seat allocation. The bill proposes increasing the maximum strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 850 members. This expansion was strategically paired with the implementation of the 33% Women’s Reservation quota. It is worth mentioning that for converting India into a Hindu Rashtra, the RSS has been consistently harping on increasing the Hindu population. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, has actively advocated for a three-child policy. RSS argues that to maintain demographic balance and prevent societal decline, every Indian family should have three children.
While the primary aim of the Sangh has been to increase the Hindu headcount, the reality is that urban middle-class Hindus across the country are going for family planning. Most prefer to have one or two kids at most. But Bhagwat claims that three children per family is necessary to maintain societal stability.
However, the reluctance of Hindus across classes to beget three or more children has forced the RSS/BJP and Modi to take the delimitation route, an indirect mechanism to politically strengthen the Hindu population in northern India. Once the RSS and BJP manage to get complete electoral control of the Parliament via the Delimitation law, it would be next to impossible to electorally remove them. Modi government seeks to hijack constitutional boundaries to override regional diversity and southern heft.
Modi and the saffron ecosystem are desperately seeking two-thirds majority after the defeat of the Delimitation Bill in the earlier Lok Sabha session. In this light, the recent move of the BJP to engineer split in the opposition rank is the part of the same overall project. Amit Shah split the parliamentary party of TMC though BJP is in power in Bengal. Parliamentary split has no bearing on the state governance. This is an exercise to consolidate its numerical strength before 2029 Lok Sabha elections. Recent defections from Opposition parties have improved the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s arithmetic in Parliament. Their real motive is to change the Constitution of India. The purpose of crossing 400 seats was to be in a position to change the Constitution. The NDA’s strength has crossed the 300-mark following recent defections and allied support from MPs who have left Bengal’s TMC and Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena (UBT). But that’s still short of an assured two-thirds majority. The Rajya Sabha presents a similar challenge, making regional parties and possible abstentions among Opposition MPs critical to the government’s prospects. (IPA Service)
