Congress’s Karti Chidambaram says the proposal to expand Lok Sabha to 815 seats will make the House ‘ineffective’
The proposal to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha by 50% will make the House “ineffective” and further reduce the political weight of the
The proposal to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha by 50% will make the House “ineffective” and further reduce the political weight of the southern States, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said on Friday (July 17, 2026). Chidambaram, the Lok Sabha member from Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga constituency, told The Hindu that expanding the House from 543 to 815 members would further reduce MPs’ opportunity to participate in debates or raise constituency issues.
“With 543 members, we hardly get any time to speak. If you increase the strength of the House to 815, it will become an ineffective House, with no opportunity for any member to raise anything substantial,” he said. He also contended that a larger Lok Sabha would widen the representation gap between the northern and southern States, making the South “less relevant in the electoral calculus” and further marginalising the region.
“Any increase in seats will be disadvantageous to the southern States,” he said. Quota for women Chidambaram said one-third of the existing 543 seats should instead be reserved for women. The
Congress MP also urged the Centre to consult all political parties before taking any decision on the issue, alleging that the government could “hide behind technicalities and procedures” to avoid wider consultations.
The BriefWire