New Delhi, March 31 -- Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Tuesday raised concerns over the long due delimitation exercise, flagging a risk of southern states being "pushed to political margins" as the northern states may gain more seats in Lok Sabha expansion.

According to sources, the Centre has planned to take the 2011 census is to be the basis for delimitation and seat redistribution, in an attempt to implement the 2023's Nari Shakti Vandan Act for women's reservation in the Parliament. Currently, the Lok Sabha has 543 seats. With a proposed 50 per cent increase, the number of seats will rise to 816, with 273 (about a third) reserved for women.

Manickam Tagore, in an X post, estimated that the northern states may gain about 200 seats, as...