New Delhi, April 15 -- The government's legislative push to reserve a third of the seats in Parliament and state legislative assemblies involves raising the cap on seats in the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850, with the allocation of seats to states, the reserved constituencies and their boundaries being defined by a delimitation commission on the basis of the latest census, which would mean the 2011 one in this case. The details emerge from the bills circulated by the government to lawmakers ahead of the three-day sitting of Parliament between April 16 and 18, including The Delimitation Bill, 2026, The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026. To be sure, it wasn't immediately clear how the current proportional representation of states in the Lok Sabha will be maintained as the government has maintained. On Tuesday, speaking to reporters after the bills were circulated, Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said that no state will lose seats, and seats across every state and region will be fairly distributed. "If you go through all the provisions of the bill, every state, region and community has been taken care of. there is nothing to worry about. In the past some people tried to mislead that the southern states would lose out due to their successful family planning. In fact these southern states are fortunate that despite controlling population growth and having fewer people proportionally, they still gain," he said. A functionary familiar with the details said the bill didn't go into the details of the seat distribution, because the delimitation commission will take a call on the particular details of the arrangement. Southern states have already expressed their concerns over their proportional representation in the Lower House of Parliament reducing. On Tuesday, after the bills were circulated, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin reiterated those concerns. "We do not even know how this delimitation exercise is going to be carried out. No explanation has been provided so far regarding the proposed Constitutional amendment," he said even as he warned of massive agitations and protests "if anything was done harming the state or if the political power of northern states was disproportionately increased in delimitation." In the briefing, Rijiju also confirmed that the 2011 Census would be the basis for the delimitation exercise. HT's analysis shows that if the 2011 Census were to be used, the proportional representation of the five southern states taken together would reduce to 18% from 20.1% and that of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar increase to 25.1% from 22.1% The Constitution amendment bill , which proposes changes to the 128th Constitution amendment bill or the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, requires a two-thirds majority to pass, while the delimitation bill can be passed with a simple majority. Neither bill mentions the actual number of seats, nor the proportion of increase. Neither also mentions what happens to state assemblies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described the legislative push as the most significant one of the 21st Century (for India). "Let all political parties come together to unanimously take forward this initiative, which concerns the rights of the sisters and daughters of the nation," he said at a public meeting in a Dehradun on Tuesday. "...I once again appeal to all political parties across the country to extend their full support to the amendment of the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam'. In 2029, we will ensure that 50 per cent of our country's population receives their rightful due," he said....