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Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has asked southern states to jointly oppose the Union government’s population-based expansion of Lok Sabha seats and has proposed a different model for the exercise. He has also opposed the Union government’s attempts to link the delimitation exercise with political reservation for women, pointing out that these are unrelated constitutional aspects.

The Union government is keen to expand the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 815 based on population criteria. Instead, Reddy has backed a new “hybrid” formula for the imminent expansion of Lok Sabha seats and has asked chief ministers who stand at a disadvantage under the current proposal to rally behind him.

He has suggested that the 272 seats (50% of 543) that the Union government aims to increase be divided into two parts, with 136 seats distributed among all states pro rata on the basis of population and the remaining 136 seats prioritised for best-performing states for the growth of the national economy.

It is the latter part of his proposal, based on Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), that makes it structurally opposed to the Union government’s delimitation plans.

Reddy said at a press conference on Tuesday (April 14):

Southern states contributed to the national economy and created employment and job opportunities significantly. How can you punish us? A blanket increase of 50 per cent seats based on population will do severe injustice to southern states as governments can be installed at the Centre without their say. This is no longer a political issue but something concerning the public, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to exploit dangerously.

He followed it up with a letter to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, which he made public on X:

Dear Shri @narendramodi Ji I am writing this open letter to you in response to the latest proposal to increase Lok Sabha seats to 850.#LokSabhaDelimitation pic.twitter.com/4M566g78kU — Revanth Reddy (@revanth_anumula) April 14, 2026

Dear Shri @narendramodi Ji

I am writing this open letter to you in response to the........

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